NaPoWriMo 2017 - Day 4

Charging Bull, Fearless Girl #

She’s a Fearless Girl
with a fearless heart of bronze
That ticks
more than it beats

She is even fearless
when she stands before
the Charging Bull
moneyed and regal
with the bearing of a king
The Bull charges
has always charged
onwards to some unknowable destination
carrying the weight of history
it cannot stop

Even though the bull is
stronger and faster
she is not afraid
For she is not alone
Pilgrims have come to her
priestesses and working women
rebels in long dresses
To lay their wreaths of iron upon her
until she is so heavy
no man or machine could budge her
This makes her strong

Tick
Tick
Tick
goes her bronze heart

Tick tick tick
go her thoughts
at a steady rhythm

She looks the bull in the eyes
and realizes
she does not know its name
she hopes in some far away way
that she is the immovable object
She feels this was something expected of her
Little (Fearless) Bronze Girl in a dress

Who is she, after all?
Her bronze flesh tells her nothing
tick
tick
tick
her heart could give her neither
her name nor past
And she was now too heavy
to move or be moved
Out of Bull’s way
She had no recollection
of why she had stepped
in challenge
in the first place

Who is she?
Who is the bull?
The questions dance in her head
She stares at the bull
But does not know if it looks
back
at
her
and all she can think of
is weight, of atlas, of carrying some
improbable amalgam of groceries
tick
tick
tick

But
She will not move
She will not surrender
She will not falter
They are counting on her?

The bull is charging at her
The bull will always charge at her
She is not afraid