THE FUTURE IS FEMALE

                                            Sigh no more, ladies.
                                                                                            Time is male
                                            and in his cups drinks to the fair.
                                                 – Adrienne Rich (“Sanpshots of a Daughter-in-Law”)

The women here wear leaves,
offer shade and dance in place
of plans to clear the unimproved—

or they bear children, populate
with coyote pups that learn
to clean the plates of men

girls fill with grass, raising
cows for heifer calves—
women teaching women.

The hawks are nesting, almost
everything on the wind
is a feminine production—

no passing fad for a buck.
I’ll raise my glass, bet
our future on the women.