Woman of the Future

The school girl in the following poem is made up of all the things she experiences-the things she sees, hears, smells, tastes, remembers-all that she has been taught and all that she thinks . She is wrapped in a cocoon of experience composed of the good and the bad things of the past and present. But one day she’ll free herself of this cocoon and emerge as a woman.

Woman of the Future

I am a child. I am all the things of my past. I am the freckles from my mother’s nose. I am the laziness of my dad Resting his eyes in front of the television.
I am all I see. Boys doing Karate Chops. Rubens’ lovely ladies, Fat and bulging. TV ads of ladies who wear lipstick in the laundry. And worry about their hands And their breath. Madonnas with delicate faces holding little bundles of Jesus.
I am all I hear. ‘Look after him. You’re his sister.’ ‘Come and get your hair done.’ ‘Rack off, Normie!’ Waves lapping or crashing at the beach. And the wind in trees and telegraph wires.
I am all I feel and taste. Soft and glossy mud on toes. Hairy insect legs Slippery camphor laurel leaves The salty taste of fish and chips on my tongue And the watery melting of iceblocks.
And all I remember. A veranda shaded by grape vines, Where I stepped off the edge and flew Like Superman. And walking up in the cold in a car where dad changed a tyre, And being lost in the zoo with my cousin.
I am all I’ve been taught. ‘I’ before ‘E’ except after ‘C’. ‘Smoking is a health hazard.’
I am all I think. Secrets. Deep down inside me.
I am all those things.
I’m like a caterpillar
And these things are my cocoon.
But one day I’ll bite my way out And be free Because
I’m the woman of the future.

By Cathy