Seventeen

April 29, 2015 | 1 min read

I wrote it for my daughter when she was seventeen. She was in her first year of University, reading English Literature, and talking to me about books, theory and writing. I told her about my feminist ‘icons’ Germaine Greer, Virginia Woolf and Alice Walker, to name a few, and she laughed and called me a femmonazi. The poem is a loving (I hope) encapsulation of our conversations in the kitchen and a time in our lives when she thought she was so grown-up and wise. Now she’s 30 and really wise :-)

Poetry Month Special

poetry month special
Walk a mile, I say
(See how far we’ve come)

Sad femmonazis, she says
(Dismissing my icons)
Postmodern posers
Running with wolves, writing in rooms,
Imposters.
Walk a mile, I say
(See how far we’ve come)
From the madwoman’s attic
In search of our mother’s gardens
Liberated.
Wild haired belly ringed barefoot
(She peels a carrot)
Mocks my compromises
And casts the first stone
Confidently.

Read more stellar poems in our Poetry Month Special Edition

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Rashida Murphy has lived in Perth for most of her life. She has published widely in anthologies and journals. She has just finished a PhD in Creative Writing from Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia.

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1 Comment
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sherebanu Shamsi
sherebanu Shamsi
11 years ago

Brilliant as always.

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