To the Non-Disabled White Grrrl with the Frida Kahlo Altar in the Living Room

In the Living Room, Zoeglossia Poem of the Week

Grrrl, if you’re going to gush to me about Frida,
you better be prepared with an intimate knowledge of nightmares
Those many things in life beyond your control and know them well enough to call their name

You better have experience of body meeting surgical knife
with a man who thinks he knows just how to fix you, holding the hilt
and what surgery after surgery, failing his expectations, feels like

Grrrl, you better know how to make peace with the boredom of pain

Grrrl, if you’re gonna create an altar to Frida in your living room
Then you need to be prepared to speak truth to your darkest vulnerabilities
To talk about what it means to never belong
Living in your own world because your parents smashed into each other, never knowing how to exist in the same place

Grrrl, I see it in your face,
how you want me to respond, all girl – crush – on – artist
But our love of Frida lives differently
You try to take on her diversity
You say you know her bravery
You aspire to be more like her

Me, I see a kindred soul
I want to honor her legacy
by fiercely loving hard
by translating culture through body
by courageously inhabiting passion

Grrrl, Frida was her own woman
Living her own truth
Enduring her own pain

You can’t inhabit someone else, and expect to find your own way