Summer Vacation for the Female of the Species

A news response poem

Leopards hunt at night 
and haul their prey into trees
to feast on them out of reach 
of other carnivores, says a friend
who has just returned from safari.
From the safety of his caravan,
he watched a pride of lions devour
a newly slaughtered water buffalo. 
The lioness is the one who hunts, 
he informs me, but the male eats first, 
leaving scraps for the cubs and females.

A work acquaintance fills me in
on her visit to the State Fair. 
She is allergic to horses 
but her husband drags her 
to the animal barns, she says. 
This year, he wanted the deep fried
pb-and-j-on-a-stick and a footlong corndog. 
Her kids wanted lemonade and turkey legs. 
They hardly shared, she said, and then 
her kid threw up by the Varied Industries Building 
and they left early and she developed
hives from the horse hair.

I go with a friend to a farm stand 
in a tony beachside enclave. Women 
in athleisurewear and tennis bracelets
load up baskets of sweet corn, tomatoes 
and fresh cut flowers. Behind the cashier, 
behind the hoop houses, Spanish-speaking 
workers bundle the produce: “Clean food,” 
the women say, hauling their spoils back 
to the rows of Rivians and Porsches 
where husbands sit inside in air conditioning
checking their cell phones.

On a plane, I read a news article 
about politicians who say women 
who want reproductive health care 
are “anti-family,” calling for tax penalties 
for childless people and suggest giving 
extra votes to those with children.

Another friend says next year 
maybe she’ll take her family to a lake
in Minnesota. We could rent a cheap cabin, 
bring our own food, get away from it all. 
Maybe I could finally get a moment’s peace, 
she says. But then laughs. 

Hyenas are the worst, my safari friend tells me, 
because they steal babies from other species. 
Hyenas hunt together, he says, but once
they've brought down their prey it's every hyena 
for itself in a violent feeding frenzy. 

Lionesses also hunt during storms. 
The noise, rain and wind make it harder 
for prey to see and hear them. I unpack
my suitcase from my weekend away
and grains of sand fall to the floor. 
I sweep them up into the dust bin
and put in a load of laundry.

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Author’s Note on the news response: Last week, politicians repeated in the media that childless people are “anti-family,” saying that parents “should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our democratic republic than people who don’t have kids.” Childless cat lady comments continued to make headlines and turn into memes. For some reason, these comments kept coming back to me as I listened to people talking about their summer vacations.

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