Wild Flowers

sprinkle a little baking soda
baby I’ll get the evil right out of you
not because I’m a woman
but because I know
how to love something clean
and I don’t take no shit
not from no man
no stains on the stovetop

god gave me a body with which
to grow life not because
I’m a woman
but because I know how
to hold on—long
before I was born I said, yes god
I’ll hold another human
I’ll carry them all, give
me their trespasses, forgive
me their sins, lead them
through this body, relieve
them of this mind—

and every month my body
gathers like wild flowers
this world’s grief
and weeps

Kara Daly is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She now lives in New England where she writes and sings.