My hips are a desk.
From my ears hang
chains of paper clips.
Rubber bands form my hair.
My breasts are wells of mimeograph ink.
My feet bear casters.
Buzz. Click.
My head
is a badly organized file.
My head is a switchboard
where crossed lines crackle.
My head is a wastebasket
of worn ideas.
Press my fingers
and in my eyes appear
credit and debit.
Zing. Tinkle.
My navel is a reject button.
From my mouth issue canceled reams.
Swollen, heavy, rectangular
I am about to be delivered
of a baby
xerox machine.
File me under W
because I wonce
was
a woman.

—Marge Piercy

Rights & Access

“The secretary chant” from CIRCLES ON THE WATER by Marge Piercy, copyright © 1982 by Middlemarsh, Inc.

Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

All rights reserved.

  • Marge Piercy

    Marge Piercy (1936- ) is the author of 19 poetry collections, including Made in Detroit (2015). Educated at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University, she is active in antiwar, feminist, and environmental causes.

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