We Are Volcanoes

“We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains.”
– Ursula K. Le Guin

I was told once that I ‘take up space’
as if I were an old leather sofa stamped
with the age of time, stashed
away in the corner, reluctant
memories clinging to my
sun-ripened flesh as I wait to be
hauled out with the trash

I take up space
meaning, I talk too much
I often dominate conversations
I over-share
Yes, since I was a child in kindergarten and
my report cards scolded and labeled me as
one who “talks excessively”
I have known that I take up space
that the things I need and want to say
bubble over with erectification
beyond my control
I have apologized, and self-chastised,
finally, after 30 something years
I have learned to accept and appreciate
this part of me

My stories are for anyone to hear,
I believe it is through the telling
of our stories, the sharing of our truths,
that we make connections,
come to know ourselves allow others to see
us as we truly are, so they can decide
if our mountains
are worth the climb

I will not apologize for taking up space—
I will claim it for every woman
who has ever been silenced,
hold it for every mother who wanted to
speak the truth of her experience,
for every little girl who just needed
someone to hear her suffering—
for every woman who was ever told
her story is not important,
the details don’t matter,
her pain just her sensitivity,
her anguish a denial of her duty in the world,
her complaints an inability to appreciate
what she has—
for every female who was taught history
and questioned its reality,
its factuality,
I claim the space for them.

With our history of violence,
in this culture of silence,
to be a woman who takes up space
is a fucking blessing
a goddamn compliment
a reason to keep on talking

I am a woman who takes up space,
and I claim it proudly!
call it ego,
call it insecurity,
(it’s a bit of both)
call it what you will
but for too long women have given over
their space and their voice to others,
have emulated, as she was one called,
the ‘angel in the house’—

But, I see new mountains forming on the horizon,

we are angels no longer.