Jess Phillips reads the names, again
Each year in March, on the eighth day,
the one we’re allowed to call ours,
slowly, Jess reads our names,
not the bitch, slut, whore we died hearing,
but the gifts from our parents.
Remember us now in this careful litany,
ordered by the dates of our deaths,
not bitch, slut, whore from the mouths of men,
but us as named daughters,
named women of these isles.
Who is here to listen to ‘unnamed woman,’
or the woman added to the roll
at the start of this very day?
Just over a dozen of you shift, embarrassed
on green benches. And you other representatives,
can you not spare six minutes to hear our names?
Kate Noakes‘ most recent collection is Goldhawk Road (Two Rivers Press, 2023). A pamphlet, Chalking the Pavement, was published by Broken Sleep Books in 2024. Her website is www.boomslangpoetry.blogspot.com. Kate lives and writes in Bristol.