Hysteria
By Daryl Sznyter
in the 1800s we were banned
from riding trains because it was thought
our uteruses would fly away
as though that should scare us
as though some small part of us
didn’t want that all along
as though our wombs
weren’t tiny saucers from the beginning
of time sick of scientists
using the same breath
to call our names & warn the others
as if the others would listen
as if curiosity and lust
could be separated
& we wouldn’t respond
with the creation of a more efficient
form of transportation
Daryl Sznyter is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and content writer from Northeast Pennsylvania. She received her MFA in Poetry from The New School and is the author of the poetry collection Synonyms for (Other) Bodies (NYQ Books). Her work has appeared in Phoebe, Gravel, Cleaver Magazine, The American Journal of Poetry, Poet Lore, WomenArts Quarterly, and elsewhere. To learn more, please visit darylsznyter.com.
Image credit: an illustration from Dr. Hollick’s Complete Works: Diseases of Male and Female Generative Organs, Marriage Guide, The Matron’s Manual of Midwifery and Child Birth, and The Diseases of Women Familiarly Explained, published in 1902