Ideology as a Way of Life

An intense women-centric, distress poem, by Tali Cohen, exclusively for Different Truths

Women like me, yes
have been added over the years to overshadow
what preceded us
that is mostly
not in line
with our agenda.
 
The accepted wording is
not what
will satisfy our desires –
 
Desires? Ours? Well then, I write
in the female first person plural
so as not to sound
as one who sins with pretension
as an individual woman,
however
I do not have many female friends for this journey
and those who have already passed
through a station or two
according to
the
fixed
rules
of society
 
A woman like me
tries
to stay free
from society
and at the same time
to be in it
with boycotts in double-digit ages
until the arrival
of the adolescence age
and beyond
 
I bear this bitter
in
sult
so far.
 
So! Spare judging
me
that “Cohen Shabtai
has rules
of her own…”
as Amos Levitan* wrote about me.
 
I came
with the goal of
satiating inspirations
based on
my theories
 
Therefore
I collect poems of the margins of humankind,
since
they have a greater potential
to waver from
the conventions –
just like me!
With 50 cents
in my wallet
I
live my own actions
lest
my inarticulate mouth
will be passed over and my eyes?
My eyes are blinded.
 
Women like me, particularly
at the beginning of
the fifteenth century
were persecuted and burned
for being independent and strong
at the Catholic church’s instruction
 
Nowadays? You can petition
the High Court of Justice.
So, it is for a woman like me.

*A well-known Israeli poet and editor.

Visual by Different Truths