♂ by Caroline Blackburn

O man, Adam, Adonis

caught up in your masculinity and virility,

your delusions of what manhood is.

Your smell, your sex. A right divinely yours.

Of woman, Eve, Aphrodite,

you think she is to be sought and plundered,

as an animal you crave,

little knowing you are unfulfilled because we are.

Your sweet talk and lithe tongue being part of your hunt

and we fall to it as the gazelle falls to a poisoned arrow.

These bars and clubs, your modern hunting ground,

oblivious to the fact that we are there for fun.

You misconstrue our gaiety.

We are merely ornaments to be displayed at your leisure,

and later, our skins will adorn your bed.

Little do you realise what you are doing to us,

slowly you distort, mutilate and vandalise all we have.

Soon we realise we have become prey,

and we turn to the only defence we have;

We become bitter to eat.

We become brash and flagrant.

Because, as the hunter, it is only the young,

the delicate and the helpless that you pursue.

Those who have survived the chase have become flaccid and hackneyed.

You don't enjoy seeing what you enjoyed making;

The bow-legged and flat-backed.

I shall laugh at you now,

as I gather my sisters around me.

You will always use and abuse.

but I shall be there to stick the pieces back together.

I have found my Father-figure now

I have found the person who not only hears but listens.

I have sought the man who my intelligence can see,

and I have found that man.

That man is me.

The above poem was entered into a competition, Lentswe Poetry Project by SABC 2, and Caroline's poem was chosen as winner for the Women's day category.  She then had to scale it down to fit a 1 minute insert. Directed by Grant Birch this was accompanying video which aired on SABC 2.