Hysteria

Hysteria

By Daryl Sznyter

in the 1800s we were banned
from riding trains        because it was thought
our uteruses would fly            away
as though that should scare us
as though some           small    part of us
didn’t want that           all along
as though our wombs
weren’t tiny saucers                from the beginning
of time             sick of scientists
using the same breath
to call our names & warn the others
as if the others                         would listen
as if     curiosity          and lust
could be separated
& we wouldn’t respond
with the creation         of a more efficient
form of            transportation

 


Daryl Sznyter is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and content writer from Northeast Pennsylvania. She received her MFA in Poetry from The New School and is the author of the poetry collection Synonyms for (Other) Bodies (NYQ Books). Her work has appeared in Phoebe, Gravel, Cleaver Magazine, The American Journal of Poetry, Poet Lore, WomenArts Quarterly, and elsewhere. To learn more, please visit darylsznyter.com.

Image credit: an illustration from Dr. Hollick’s Complete Works: Diseases of Male and Female Generative Organs, Marriage Guide, The Matron’s Manual of Midwifery and Child Birth, and The Diseases of Women Familiarly Explained, published in 1902

By | 2018-10-16T15:45:08-07:00 October 18th, 2018|Categories: Issue 73: 18 October 2018|Tags: , |1 Comment

One Comment

  1. Inga Buccella 2018-10-18 at 6:10 pm

    Precise imagery. I like the rhythm of the poem.

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