an ode to women on international women's day

women. 

so wonderfully complex, exquisitely nuanced, yet tragically boxed into limiting frames. 

exceptional spirits born into bodies that then families, systems of socialization and society as a whole seek to define. 

we acquiesce, get along, look down, choose our battles.  

we defy, push back, speak out, resist, fight.  

we cry, scream, throw things, hone warrior skills. 

we critically analyze, synthesize, strategize, problem solve. 

we are workers, players, lovers, strategists, analysts, engineers. 

we are the spooks who sat behind the door, guerrilla fighters, armed militia, gangstas. 

we are daughters, sisters, mothers, aunties, neighbors, friends, comrades.  

we are sexual, non-sexual, multi-sexual, polyamorous, monogamous. 

we are so much. 

so much more than the gendered bodies that house our souls. 

so much more than the boxes in which we are raised. 

so much more than the socioeconomicpolitical roles assigned to us by society. 

on this 8th day of march 2013, like every day, i honor and celebrate women now, then and forever...here, there and everywhere.