Radicalised

A poem, in honour of IWD

Dear friends,

On this International Women’s Day, 2026, I would like to offer you a poem from my first book, Murmurations. The image is not taken at 2 AM, but rather last summer the afternoon after my wedding, on our way to a celebratory lunch—but the spirit of this picture is the same as what I am trying to convey in my poem:

Two besties in an unguarded moment—photo by one of our husbands

Ordinary women being themselves fully and freely. We white (cis) women of Western Europe are immensely privileged in that we have this freedom to be more or less who we are.

We can choose careers, education, family or not, as the case may be. Our struggles are different and in most cases not life threatening.

But there is work to be done here too, as in the US, as in the Middle East, as in all the world where women are just trying to live their lives.

Trying to be free of oppression, violence, guilt and abuse. Trying to share kindness, knowledge, art, humour, community and stories.

The fight is far from over.

Radicalised

Strip away
convention
duty
conformity
insecurity
who do you think you are
you owe
you should
it’s not good for you to
you’re fat
you’re unhealthy
you’re ugly
you’re stupid
you’re too ambitious
you’re lazy
don’t be so touchy it was just a joke
you should smile more
you should cook more
you should stay at home and take care of
your family and also have a job and children
and clean the house and diet and be thin
and pretty and funny but not so funny that
it overshadows the men
don’t drink too much
be chaste but sexy but don’t be a tease

and what are you left with

a life unbound unbridled unspoiled
unrelenting unrepentant

nature
intuition
creativity
compassion
laughter
dancing down the street at 2 AM

Woman
in her purest form