FIRST PLACE: A MAN EXPLAINED SOMETHING TO ME

By Juliana Kaplan BC'19

The skies were cloudy

The air crackling with promises of winter to come

With each step, red-veined leaves crackled 

The melancholy wind mussed my hair

Today was not like those that had come before

Comforting in its monotony

No, today a man explained something to me

My friends, it’s funny what you think you knew

When all along you were wrong

Well, actually

Today a man explained something to me

I wasn’t ready to hear the truth

That lurked under the surface all along

Simply waiting to bubble up when the right master called

Always out of grasp, out of reach

How could I need what I did not know? 

Today a man explained something to me

For too long, I lived in the dark

Blind to the glaring realities surrounding me 

No one could quite so eloquently capture the nuance

Of knowledge far beyond what I could bear

It was important, no, crucial for me to hear

Today a man explained something to me

You see my friends

I thought I knew

What the patriarchy is

And what it can do 

But not so, you see

For now I have been enlightened

Yes, today a man explained feminism to me