Wombs ­­­­­­­­­­­­­| Karina Guardiola-Lopez

Some wombs

House cysts not children 

Cramps, not comfort 

Monthly punching bags

Scrambled self esteem

Eggs over, not easy

Not sunny, not poached

Ovary omelet, no onions all tears

Fried, unfertilized, fibroids

Torn, twisted, tender tubes

No two uteruses are alike

Some septate, one sided, tilted

Some empty

Some born without

Some create bellies

Some are not ready

Some are not interested, but judged

No more wounded wombs from weary words

All wombs are valid

And if no womb, is still valid

Because all bodies are valid

Let all bodies just be

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Karina Guardiola-Lopez, MSED, is a Honduran American Jew from NY/NJ. She is a poet, writing coach, educator, and author of Textual Time Capsules (2021), Jewtina Journals (2016), and co-author of Live Big Girl (2017). Her works have appeared in New Brunswick Library (2023), Hive Avenue Journal (2022), LaLiberta Online (2021), For Women who Roar, (2020), Great Weather for Media (2020), Indolent Books (2020), and many others. She has featured at The NYC Poetry Festival at Governor's Island, The National Black Theatre, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Bowery Poetry Club, The Bronx Museum, just to name a few. She has created a collection of poetic stickers, magnets, and a card deck for writers to inspire and motivate writers to write their story. For more information visit www.kglopez.com.