"What Do Women Want?" by Kim Addonizio

"What Do Women Want?" by Kim Addonizio

I want a red dress.
I want it flimsy and cheap,
I want it too tight, I want to wear it
until someone tears it off me.
I want it sleeveless and backless,
this dress, so no one has to guess
what's underneath. I want to walk down
the street past Thrifty's and the hardware store
with all those keys glittering in the window,
past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old
donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers
slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly,
hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.
I want to walk like I'm the only
woman on earth and I can have my pick.
I want that red dress bad.
I want it to confirm
your worst fears about me,
to show you how little I care about you
or anything except what
I want. When I find it, I'll pull that garment
from its hanger like I'm choosing a body
to carry me into this world, through
the birth-cries and the love-cries too,
and I'll wear it like bones, like skin,
it'll be the goddamned
dress they bury me in.

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Tags:

• What Do Women Want?
• by
• Kim Addonizio
• women
• gender
• beauty
• feminism
• poetry
• poem
• American
• poet
• Kim
• Addonizio
• reading

[AntiqueThings]

@scifiwritir1

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[AntiqueThings]

@Poemsapennyeach

Her answer to "What do women want?" doesn't bother me, but the fact that the question exists is off-putting. It assumes that a.) women are confusing, unknowable creatures, and b.) all women are exactly the same.

When I read this poem, I imagine Addonizio deals with this problematic question by saying that she wants to be seen as an individual. There are a lot of attempts at self-validation going on in the phrases.

[Poemsapennyeach]

That's not what I want I have to say....!

[scifiwritir1]

Oh wow! That was sooo good! Thanks so much for this poem. Gosh, i love poetry!