inanna’s plea to the modern woman

in deeply patriarchal societies, women often must transverse liminal spaces of being to which their gender both exiles and liberates them. Inanna was the goddess of that liminality.
                                                —Nuri McBride, “The Goddess and the Rose”

be swallow and lion.
the air and the fire.

lies will try to steal
your jewel, drive you

mad, devour
your courage.

cynics will seduce you
all night long with bitter

shots in ashy bars
where everyone envies

everyone. men in big
offices get high

on their power, tell
good girls like you

to smile more. kill
no time impressing

false gods. niceties never
conquered the tyrant.

be bud and thorn
of the blood red rose,

the rain and the root.
labor and fruit.

be dove and snake
awake in the dark.

embody
a goddess

who descends
to rise.

*

Claire Coenen, LMSW, is a writer and teacher living in Nashville, Tennessee. After many years of graduate school and working as a psychotherapist, Claire now devotes her time to writing and to teaching yoga, SoulCollage® and expressive writing. Her work has appeared in several publications including The Banyan Review, Poetry Breakfast, and Salvation South. Her first book of poems, The Beautiful Keeps Breathing (Kelsay Books), was published in June 2024.