come on down to the Mermaid Cafe

                  Touchy Subjects



“Men are afraid women will laugh at them.
Women are afraid men will kill them.” – Margaret Atwood


they used to say never discuss politics with friends
but how can i tell if you value my life without such discussions
particularly now
	with Trump at the helm
	waiting impatiently for...


if they had gotten in when congress people still filled the hall
the mob, the riotous crowd,
	intent on their revolution against this country
there would have been more than five dead
	more damage, more death
		more rape

i know this because i’ve heard the threats against strong women
					        against women in power
i know this because 
			i am a woman

i know this because i’ve seen people
	so ready to explode
		at the slightest touch they explode their anger
			it spills from them like niagara falls
		taking hold however they think they know how 
	i’ve seen men explode in anger

anger and politics and violence against women
	they breach their own security and are out in the open
	white supremacist at the helm
		leading us not into temptation
			but into anger
	
i do talk politics and i do prejudge 
if his name speaks with sweetness from your mouth
and if you talk about her emails i will scream 
to the ends of the earth
and we will not be friends still, again
	because your politics are my life
	and i prefer my friends to care about me and mine
i breach social protocol 
		and here we are.

		nevertheless, she persisted

she spoke the words of our predecessor 
	and she was told to be silent
		she was told to sit down
			she was told, implicitly, that her words do not matter

but his bid to silence her failed, explicitly
and, damn, her words matter 

she followed his rules
	she shut her mouth
	but only in his presence 
		and only for a short time
	she spoke the words she was told not to
	she stood outside his door and she spoke the words of her foremother
				and herself
	
Liz spoke the words of Coretta

it turns out that we’ve been warned 
					twice
about racism
about the nominee for attorney general
about how those two intersect in a venn diagram that looks like a single circle

and after she was silenced on the senate floor
       after she was told to hush now, little girl
	men spoke 
		reading from the same letter
		reading the same words that were used to silence her
	men spoke and were not warned of reprimand
	men spoke and did not have things “explained” to them

	men spoke after a woman was silenced

and i’m told we don’t need feminism anymore

i have one thing to say to that:

	no comment

          	that one friend




politics have always been a great divide
pitting brother against brother
mother against child
but this year feels so much bigger


i fear that i have become that one friend 
	the one that won’t shut up 
	the one that she feels is overreacting
					overreaching 
						
	and i fear that she is that one friend that is just
							    over


years of building friendship from chance
	random roommates in college
	introductions
built into cathedrals of laughter and tears on the shores of lake erie


and i don’t want that gone
	i miss the laughter that no one else understands
			the words that flow so quickly 
no one in their right mind can keep up
	i miss the understanding that only best friends have


3000 miles 
	but it may as well be light years 
	between us


and we grew with our husbands
	each of us changing slowly 
	each of us changing
			from the young kids that we once were


	leaving us           		distant


right now you are that one friend that i’ve cried about


right now we are that one friendship that i thought would last like diamonds


right now i fear so much
	
	i think that you have forgotten who i am
	and i don’t know you anymore