Yarrow House

Travels in the Land of Women

I’d like to wander around in the back streets 
of ancient cities, perch on rocks 
overlooking a thrashing sea, sit late 
over a drink at a tiny table on the cobbled square 
of the working quarters, and never have to worry 

about the men who think I’m marketing 
my body simply by being there, 
who think a look is an invitation, 
who wait ready to snatch a handful of breast, 
or show me their cock on a momentarily empty road.

I’d like to stroll through the morning market 
in a land where women have walked  
for generations without fear, with easy confidence, 
with pride in their bodies and their minds, 
with free hearts, free eyes. I’d like to apply 

for permanent residency, buy house, get a cat, 
plant a bay tree in the yard, learn my neighbors’ names.
I’d write long letters home about how wonderful 
my life had become, living without fear, now 
that I was living in the land of women.

Published in Borderlands, Court Street Press, Seattle: 1999

Onetime reproduction for non-resale purposes permitted by the author with the following credit line:  by Judith Yarrow