Circe

By Cassidy Tyler

Featured art: Standing Woman by Abbott Handerson Thayer

Her magic is only feared because she has a “man’s” temper

She is unwilling to tolerate your entitlement

Just because she has a uterus doesn’t mean she your property

Just because she welcomed you to her home doesn’t mean you have an invitation to her body

You have overstayed your welcome

She showed who you are so your sons can learn from your privilege

Odysseus was not the first man she had put in his place

Just because you are a man doesn’t mean you have to be a pig

She taught you a lesson you didn’t like

Well you touched her in a way she didn’t like

She isn’t evil

she has a limit on how much of your medieval to exonerate

Her smile is only there because you demand it

She tolerates your lies because it means she gets to keep hers

She committed to you but did you forget you made one to her

Did you know that she is so much more than the kitchen

Do you see how she takes all the crap you give her

And yet gives nothing but kindness and respect back

Maybe you should learn from that instead of automatically seeing your subordinate as a housekeeper

Maybe you should see her as the leader she is

Maybe you should have been taught that beauty and brains are not mutually exclusive

Her magic is not elusive

your ego is obtrusive

Do you see that

She walks home her keys between her fingers because that is what she has been taught

If she feels like she is being followed she pretends she is on the phone

If her skirt does not go past her knees it is a screaming invitation for invasion

She misses 10x the amount of school her male peers do

because the office is more concerned with her exposed shoulders than her education

Her sharp unforgiving tongue is the reason you all call her a witch

Her magic is the words that shoot out like arrows

Aimed at anyone who calls her unhitched

She is stitching her amour back together from the sorrows

Sorrows she swallows because tragedy doesn’t happen in meadows

She is no witch

She is a woman soured by entitlement

She has a magic all her own

And she does not ask for permission

She simply does right by her own admission

She is better off without your tradition

She does not want or need your inquisition

Do not try to force her into submission

She is a magician with ambition and her own ammunition

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Cassidy Tyler (she/her) is a high school student and poet from Cincinnati. You can find her poetry on Instagram, @oneline_ata_time.