THE PATRIARCHY OF PLANTS

Emily Donoher

it is the season of sun and antihistamines

running out of tissues and sore-stung eyes


and you ask me why there’s so much pollen in the air

I say men and you scoff

because that’s my preferred answer to everything fucked

but really even the plants are peppered with patriarchy


I tell you of the city planners and their unwanting

of mess only women make

so they brought out the boys

who do not bleed

do not bear bitter fruits

do not sticky the pavements with the inconvenience of life


instead they lined the streets

with rows of men masturbating into the wind

now our noses pregnant with pollen

will suffer the summer

all for the city planners

who were too afraid

to let a wild woman grow