This poem is taken from PN Review 266, Volume 48 Number 6, July - August 2022.

Six Poems

Catherine-Esther Cowie
Outside My Window

A dog. Her underbelly.
Fat hanging tits.
I think of the Dahomey Amazons.
Women who never knew a man,
never bore a child. Whose breasts
so stunned the Frenchmen. They couldn’t shoot.
The Amazons severed their heads.
I have longed to suckle at their tits.
Mino. Mother. I would cry.
Each drop possessing what –
pride. Prophecy. A way forward.
My own legend:
A woman forced.
A woman forced. Who stayed.
Because sugar cane and cocoa failed.
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