Sophie Furlong Tighe
(Nothing but) Flowers
Once a friend told me that women's self-defense is often
quite ineffective, actually.
He showed me with his own two hands,
how when men defend,
they push heavy and straight between the ribs.
But a woman stabs up, with all the might in her
thin arms
the intruder can push
her weight down and knife out
before she breaks skin.
He said,
that if I was ever scared
I am best to swing over stab
find a wrench
or a pickaxe.
The morning after he broke his girlfriend's arm I brought him to the park and we set rose petals racing under the bridge.
-How do we know who’s is who’s?
-Mine’s redder
-What’s our wager?
-If I win I throw you over the bridge and when you win you don’t have to speak to me for the whole rest of the day.
-What if I want to explain myself?
-Heads I win, tails you lose.
We waited for the flowers on the other side
Our silence
making us the same
until,
-I am always surprised when they appear again.
-Curious for the life they live under the bridge?
When I sent him pictures of my own bruises he couldn't understand
How that man could want to hurt me
How could anyone strike to leave a mark--
--Genuinely, unsettling.
It is the ones who think
they never could
always the soft
who can recall
she’ll stab up
and I’ll push down.
quite ineffective, actually.
He showed me with his own two hands,
how when men defend,
they push heavy and straight between the ribs.
But a woman stabs up, with all the might in her
thin arms
the intruder can push
her weight down and knife out
before she breaks skin.
He said,
that if I was ever scared
I am best to swing over stab
find a wrench
or a pickaxe.
The morning after he broke his girlfriend's arm I brought him to the park and we set rose petals racing under the bridge.
-How do we know who’s is who’s?
-Mine’s redder
-What’s our wager?
-If I win I throw you over the bridge and when you win you don’t have to speak to me for the whole rest of the day.
-What if I want to explain myself?
-Heads I win, tails you lose.
We waited for the flowers on the other side
Our silence
making us the same
until,
-I am always surprised when they appear again.
-Curious for the life they live under the bridge?
When I sent him pictures of my own bruises he couldn't understand
How that man could want to hurt me
How could anyone strike to leave a mark--
--Genuinely, unsettling.
It is the ones who think
they never could
always the soft
who can recall
she’ll stab up
and I’ll push down.
Biography
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Sophie Furlong Tighe is a Dublin based poet. She has work published or forthcoming in DUST Magazine, Boston Accent Lit, and Vagabond City Lit among others. She tweets @furtiso.
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