“Osmosis” – Poem by Mackenzie Wilson
Like all the women before me
I’ve learned to carry burdens in the crook of my hip
Balancing other’s pain on top of my head
Spread thin like wartime butter
I learned to say yes before I learned to say no
Truthfully, I don’t think I ever learned the latter
Certainly I was not taught with any conviction
To weigh my wishes above another’s
My duties I gleaned through observation and pity
Watching sweat bead on my mother’s brow
My grandma cursing her bad elbow
Expectation tunneled
Through my pores
It doesn’t matter what resentment I feel
Towards the women who conformed to their roles
Who perpetuated a world where I am expected to do the same
Out of sympathy I ease their loads
Because I know if I don’t
Then nobody else will
So I hitch up my skirt, I roll up my sleeves
I pick up where they leave off
I know that by doing this
I seal myself to their fate
Mackenzie is a writer from Vancouver, Canada. She is currently based in Paris, where she’s pursuing an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Kent’s Paris School of Arts and Culture. Her work spans fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Inspired by the streets of Paris and the Pacific Northwest, she writes to map the spaces between homes, both real and imagined.
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