-after Polite Safety Notice by Mark Riddes

Out there, everywhere a woman past her prime
is rolling through the streets, low rumbling thunder.
Closer than you think women, are gathering clouds.
I know you must have heard of it.
They open their mouths, round eyes of storms.
Beware and adapt. Like hurricanes, moist air 
rising, opposing forces have whipped them up.
Their season has arrived. 
A force of nature. Unstoppable. You cannot escape it.

Out there, everywhere, a little girl is standing up in class, 
saying what should have been said a long time ago.
Her words swarms of bees unable to be contained
absconding through the halls and windows
creating an impenetrable buzz. Be in awe,
she has learnt by watching all the adults’ mistakes,
a film on repeat, stuck in that same scene,
over and over again. The others will follow her flight.
Once captured, it escapes out of every pore like sweat inevitable in heat.
A force of nature. Unstoppable. You cannot escape it.

Out there, everywhere, young women are starting families,
still pressured to perform following the pack,
zooming and nooming, contained in little squares,
they’ll share every moment in an instant.
Others, barren in the race, barricaded
by careers, hiding from the clocks that keep turning over on 
dainty wrist watch phones.

But out there, the weather is changing. Throw open the doors. 
The landscape created long ago, needs reshaping.  
Together it can be tended and nurtured.  
Like stars, or slow growing trees the end will not be seen 
by this generation but its growth can sustain the future.
A force of nature. Unstoppable. You cannot escape it.