Had Columbus been a woman
Let’s call her Cristina
Would’ve she dared to get on a boat with all those men?
Long months on a ship full of drunken sailors
And one lonely chic equipped
With a telescope and a dream.
Who would care?
Who would protect her from danger?
Not the sea monsters and storms
But from thirty-nine starved loins on board?
Why a Walker is always a Johnnie and not a Jane?
Is killing dragons inappropriate in a skirt?
Is crossing seven rivers and seven mountains too risky for a girl?
And what if the only dragon to be scared of is Johnnie himself?
Yet there are thousands Cristinas and Janes
With nomad curiosity in their veins
With their hair in a bun
With their flip-flops in mud
With their fingers on standby
Ready to press Record on that iPhone 5.
They climb volcanoes and sleep in hammocks under open sky
They stay in an ashram for a month
Without a word
So grateful for being
So blessed by the feeling
Of Insatiable Heart.
It’ll never let them give up!
They eat naan from a street market in Mumbai
With a laptop open to write
And share the allure with their sisters and moms
Tricked into thinking
That it’s not for them
That conquering the world with a backpack
Is only for men…
I’m not saying there are no monsters out there…
I met some of them myself.
Emerging from the depths of the night
Or from the safety of a crowd
Sneaky and scared
Far away from the sight of an honest man.
They’re hunting alone
They just touch and go
Let my sisters’ souls bleed on the floor…
Like that lonely night of the first snow in my new home
I didn’t even know that country could get so cold.
I was almost there.
Just one more step on the icy stairs.
The gloves were out and the key was in
And my shivering hands were doing their best.
Couldn’t just wait to pet the cat
And warm my fingers up
With a little tea glass…
But there were other fingers I felt that night
And other were their reasons to hurry.
They penetrated the secrets of my skirt
And in a second put my crotch in alert.
There were words too, like vomit spit to my ear
Words that I couldn’t understand
Gasped quietly in a shaking voice
As if embarrassed themselves of being so gross.
It took all three seconds or so…
And all of them
The fingers
The words
And the man
Ran away.
I turned around too late.
No one would’ve understood my scream either way…
If at least I’d learned how to swear
If at least I’d known one word
That hurt
I would curse
His rotten soul forever!
But he disappeared
In victory
Carrying the precious trophy
On the skin of his hand.
My humiliation and shame.
Why
Why did I wear a skirt?
Oh if you only knew
How with that one filthy gesture you made me feel
Like a piece of shit
Like a rubbish bin
Like the dirtiest sin
How you made me regret
I’M A WOMAN
How you made me ashamed
Of my curves
My heels
My entire being?
ME?!
The Powerful Queen!
The Empress!
The Priestess!
The Almighty Mistress!
The Womb of the Universe!
The Goddess for Goddess’s sake!
You, with your condemned hands
With your grudged lips
For a moment you made me think
It was my fault!
Maybe that was the point
Maybe that turned you on
I will never know.
But listen to this.
Even with a man masturbating to me in a bus
With offers to get a ride from old satires
With a pool boy unintentionally rubbing his hand against my breast
With a hurried anonymous touch in a jam-packed train
With a nasty gasp in the phone, asking if I’m a whore
With a stalker in a shopping mall
With a group of guards discussing my ass
With shouts and whistles on the street
Uuuy mami que rica ven aqui!
Even with that
I still choose to explore that path!
Whatever happens
I’m one of the Janes.
Astonished! Amazed!
With the baklava taste
Lost in the gaze at Cappadocia caves
Thrilled by the reckless ride in the 4×4 in Tioman
Exhilarated by the Sun kissing sand of Cahuita beach
High-spirited by the sip of coco loco drink
Breath-taken by the carnival’s rhythm and noise
By the flour and foam
By the scents and colors
By the water battle, nargile smoke and red-eyed frog
Immersed in the magic of Ayahuasca song
Swirled in the salsa spin till the break of dawn
Till my heart stops
I will always be fucking in love with this world!
Despite the sea monsters
Dragons on fire
Bad spirits hidden in shade
We
Janes
Will not be afraid
To travel
And rule.
This is our world too!