-Lady-

There is an elegance in saying “Lady.” I like pronouncing the word as if it were a chocolate ready to melt, gum your fingers, and chemically change your mood. Lady has a dignity, and it is allowed to eat ice cream in front of Matlock while sweats wearing if it wants to. Some people say the word “woman,” and they mean it like some lemon lozenge in your throat stopping you from coughing: *girlgirlgirl* Or sometimes woman is prescribed in italics: woman. It can be a migraine itself, woman. Said like “get behind me nurse.” Then there is “female.” That prickly-clean paper crumpling of the doctor’s chairbed creasing your thigh and that notcovering gown. Female is ready to see you now, It peers over a clipboard and looks about to give...

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