Peri-Menopause Dissected By Poet Julie Grass

I Am Pink Hot Tamale Red!

If it’s April, it’s National Poetry Month!

We are so excited at Fiftiness to celebrate National Poetry Month by introducing poetry to our site. What a perfect form of the written, or spoken word, to give us perspective on the universal truths of being a woman over fifty.

Introducing Julie Grass . . .

 

PERI-MENOPAUSE

I am pink hot tamale red

tea kettle blowing

steam into a frenzied whistle

bolting from the table

insane with heat

outside barefoot

my face a dark cherry

burrowing into heaps of crispy snow.

Find me a meat locker

send me to Juno

lock me in a Baskin Robbins

or lay me naked

on a glacial lake

surrounded by electric fans

on high

a can of frozen lemonade

deep in each armpit.

Oh God give me estrogen.

 *  *  *

A little bit about our Poet: Julie Grass has six brightly painted mannequin feet walking across her kitchen ceiling and she has a gorilla suit in her front closet. She eats popcorn and blueberries with chopsticks and has published poems in several literary journals including Northwest Review, PoemMemoirStory, 88, Hawaii’s Review, Eureka Literary Magazine, and Plainsongs.

Editor’s Note: I want to throw my arms around Julie for being my test poet in my nascent career as content creator! Thank you for trusting us, and thank you for your bravery. You have put a perfect & funny spin on an uncomfortable reality. I also want to encourage everyone to find small ways of celebrating National Poetry Month.  Poem-a-Day, delivers poetry directly to your in-box. Poem-in-your-pocket is celebrated on April 27. Think of it as having an Ace in your pocket for the day! The United States Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003, Billy Collins said in his 2012 Ted Talk, “It’s a good thing to get poetry off the shelves and more into public life. Start a meeting with a poem. That would be an idea you might take with you.” So take a poem with you every day throughout the month of April. Or read one here!