In print

We want to be in print;

To feel the weight of our words in

Paper and ink

And to know their value

In dollar signs and transformed minds.

Journals, magazines, newspapers, novels.

The smell of the page like petrichor, awakening the seeds of our creativity.

A good book turns us on you see –

the bend and curve of the spine

akin to a lover’s hand on our upper thigh.

We want it to go deeper.

We want it to open us,

Please us,

Tease us,

Seize us,

And leave us satisfied.

We arrived there in print.

Tumeric yellow, highlighter blue, binnepoes pink, menstrual red –

Bright colours that clearly said

‘We have arrived’.

The patterns of old fears removed

By the material that we imbued

With love, honesty, painful truths.

Our prints imprint on our imaginations

The possibility that we are bold.

We are, we are told.

We are

Brave,

Crazed,

Enraged,

Amazed,

But we refuse to be enslaved by context or history.

We are telling our own stories, and telling them loud.

We are each others’ megaphones

To fight the drone

Of stale narratives dictating our identity.

We will be in print.

It is our turn to ask the questions.

It is our turn to give our answers.

By Jennifer Thorpe

AWDF/FEMRITE Creative Writing Workshop 2014 participant