An old woman who was considered beautiful (Sonnet 1) - Diego Hurtado de Mendoza

     You have, Mistress Aldonza, three times thirty years,

three strands of hair, no more, and just one tooth,

breasts more fitting for a grasshopper,

where spiderwebs and scratches abound.

Circling Zero - Ana Ristovic

We are independent women.

We breathe asthmatically

while waiting for new love. We pop pills

of unfulfilled promises. We drown in murky dreams.

Twenty-four hours a day we painfully make love

to a migraine and forgive her

because she is female.

 

What our dead can do - Zbigniew Herbert

Jan came this morning

—I dreamt of my father

he says

Lessons for Young Women - Frances-Marie Coke

Proper English words were not enough

to teach the serious lessons girls must learn.

Solaua, a secret embryo - Momoe Malietoa Von Reiche

She can smell

Cowdung in the mist of

Solaua, where her heart

Is suspended

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness - Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness

my beauty are, my glorious dress;

'midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,

with joy shall I lift up my head.

If You Could - Assamala Amoi

If you could leave when work was done

Like the sun at the end of its day;

Spreading My Wings - Magie Faure-Vidot

I am the captain of my own destiny

One humble and tiny

However over the oceans I spread my wings

And in the ball-room I practise the best swings

The Hometown Girl - Lisímaco Chavarría

The young campesino returned to his humble home

in the evening, tools in one hand,

a bouquet of wildflowers in the other

—a small offering for his beautiful girl

A March Invocation - Ivan Laučík

Let the snow speak out

in the needles of pine

what is again an embrace ...