Remember the news article about Lorena Bobbitt? 1989! Lucille Clifton wrote this about it. It needs no explication:
Lorena
. Woman cuts off husband ‘s penis,
later throws it from car window.
. -News Report
it lay in my palm soft and trembled
as a new bird and i thought about
authority and how it always insisted
on itself, how it was master
of the man, how it measured him, never
was ignored or denied, and how it promised
there would be sweetness if it was obeyed
just like the saints do, like the angels
and i opened the window and held out my
uncupped hand; i swear to god
i thought it could fly
Lucille Clifton
There’s a new edition of her collected poems out, definitely worth it!