Poetry By Julene Tripp Weaver

          Franck Michel CC



Baby-Girl

Do you know how to walk in the city?
you need heels, grown up fuck-you heels,
click the sidewalk heels, or boots will do,
bright red, a pair that hollers against the weather,
screams, I’m here, and I’m going to walk all over you.

Baby-girl
Did you wake up today tired? Drag yourself
out of bed, look in that mirror and say,
what’s the use? Well you got to slap
some water and cream on your body,
comb your hair and face the day.

Baby-girl
Do you know how to take care of shit?
You bet you do, there is a long list
that must be done, no one else
will do it, besides you made your
damn list to suit yourself, so get to it.

Baby-girl
There are a million questions 
on how to live a life, you could open 
a new door any day—in fact you have--
started plum over, walked out of one
house, created another, and another.

Baby-girl
You had innumerable partners
to choose between, hell, you had the cream--
they were fine, you used and aborted, 
took and left the building, let go
always another in the wings.

Baby-girl
How did you ever settle? Was it fate,
or from the illness you contracted?
You wound down, aged, went through 
menopause, learned to say no, 
learned who you could fight with.

Baby-girl
Whatever crazy wound you into today?
Hypomania and chocolate live with you,
getting words onto the page, you found ways
to find yourself, bent into what came,
a natural tendency.

Baby-girl
Will you ever reach your potential?
This is the fear you carry, to rise
to your true self, your personal best.
There is no knowing how we’ll
turn out, what doors we choose.

Baby-girl
Do you follow, but not lead?
One way we learn is listening 
until we take on, but our silences--
they eat the knowledge we need--
it is possible to digest.

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Julene Tripp Weaver is a psychotherapist and writer in Seattle, WA. Her third poetry collection, truth be bold—Serenading Life & Death in the Age of AIDS, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards and won the Bisexual Book Award. Her work is published in many journals and anthologies. She has two essays published in, But You Don’t Look Sick: The Real Life Adventures of Fibro Bitches, Lupus Warriors, and other Super Heroes Battling Invisible Illness. Two recent anthologies include her poems: Covid, Isolation & Hope: Artists Respond to the Pandemic, and Poets Speaking to Poets: Echoes and Tributes. More of her writing can be found at www.julenetrippweaver.com, and on Twitter @trippweavepoet