“I have never burned a bra,” Poem, Alex Dawson.

But I have been called a “c*nt” for

standing up to a sexist classmate,

given the bird to a stranger who

yelled obscenities from a car,

shielded a group of young girls

from a subway pervert, slapped

away an unwelcome hand or

two, protested for the right

to my own body, confronted

my father for his entitlement

to abuse, and just so you know,

I’m one of the lucky ones. And

just so you know, the work’s

not finished yet.

Alex Dawson is a writer, wildlife photographer and adult ESL teacher from Toronto. She published a photo-poetry book entitled “All these Living Things” last year, which landed at #2 in nature poetry on Amazon’s Bestseller List. She has been published by “Queen’s Quarterly”, “The Bombay Literary Magazine”, “Gather Poets” and “Humana Obscura”. Her writing can be found on Instagram and Substack @alexdawcreates. Alex writes with constant curiosity about the intersection between nature, memory, identity and culture.