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Women are tired of the ways men bleed Images of blood are all around us, everywhere
in our modern urbanized society blood is depicted, spoken of, displayed:
The blood of wound, of death and to a tiny extent birth,
is part of daily viewing in televisionand films;
we are completely familiarwith the bloodlines of kinship,
and with the bloodof violence, of *** and vengeance,
of sacrifice,suffering, and of IV drug users; the bloodof warning, of wounding, of threat;
the dangerattached to the blood of AIDS; the blood of life, of transfusions, of redemption;
the blood of Christ;the blood of martyrdom, of St. Sebastian,
of the prizefighter depicted in the movies. Blood is genealogy in bloodlines,
family blood, the blood that is thickerthan water.
Blood is in name and in commonexpression, in the blood of the lamb,
in the blood of blood, sweat and tears,
in the blood of the Sangrede Christo Mountains, in the blood of blood brothers,
the blood of the stigmata, the blood on the moon,
the blood that cannot be squeezed from turnips, the blood dripping from the mouth of the vampire,
the bloodstain on Lady Macbeth's hands, the bloodgurgling down the shower drain in
horror films. Real blood is everywhere in our society,
Saturday-night blood, drive-by-shooting blood, the blood he wascovered
in after he was shot, or stabbedor blown up; the pencil- thin line like a necklaceacross
her throat, the great spread of it when she waschopped
up, the bloody nose,
the bleeding ulcer, the sting of hemorrhoids,
the blood on the surgeon'sgown and the butcher's apron,
the many rivers of battle and massacre that have run with blood,
the battlefield soaked, the sand reddened,
the blood on the child's ear and the wife's mouth and the young man's cheek.
In the cities the gutters are streamingand sidewalks
pooled and car seats puddled and emergency rooms smeared and
police clubs stained. When gangster John Dillinger's body fell on
the streetshot by the FBI and spoutingfrom numerous holes
passersby instantly leaped as though to a holy stream,
to dipa handkerchief, newspaper, even a sleeve into the blood of his wounds,
to takea bit home with them. Blood is magic
Blood is holy And wholly riveting of our attention.
Menstrual blood is the only source of bloodthat is not traumatically induced.
Yet in modern society, this is the most hidden blood,
the one rarely spoken of and almost never seen
except privately by women, who shut themselvesin little rooms to quickly
and perhaps disgustedly change their pads and tampons,
wrapping the bloodied cotton so it won't be seenby others,
wrinkling their faces at the odor, flushing or hiding the evidence away.
Blood is everywhere and yet the one
the only the single nameit has not had publiclyfor
many centuries is menstrual blood
is menstrual blood is menstrual blood
is menstrual blood
Menstrual blood, like waterjust flows. Its fountain existedlong before knives or
flint. Menstruationis the original source of blood.
Menstrual Menstrual
Menstrual Menstrual
is blood's secret name.