'tfw....you burn the patriarchy to the ground' by Kate MacAlister

Cut the rope, cast the doubts on the pyre. Let’s take back these streets tonight. I see red carnations blossom in the back of your throat tonight.

We come from angry women, the daughters of disturbing the peace. Another voice taken,
no more mournful candles, no more silent vigils. Tell me how can they sleep peacefully tonight?

Each stolen breath a thousand calls echoing. Make a wish through the tears, every bottle of gasoline a fallen star in a state of emergency. We are not afraid to break glass tonight

because we know that this is war. We know to unhinge, to build better than to fix something beyond repair. We will not keep spare parts tonight.

your hands quivering, I feel a new world waking in your raised fist, just between
the heart and the headline, your hair cut and fallen soothsaying all of our fate tonight.

I am the many, I am not alone. We are bread. We are roses. we are the “we will burn it all down” and it is not a figure of speech, we are raising all of hell, all of the earth tonight

to hold up all of the sky. And if they cross beyond the frames of our bones and bodies again, again, I will hold you, my sister, tend your wounds in the flare of the bleeding moon tonight.

The old lie: we are the wicked women, the witches and bitches, the gossips and the fire
with life and freedom in our eyes - the revolutionary blood of our sisters stays unforgotten tonight.

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Kate MacAlister's forthcoming poetry book, 'Burn it all Down, then Kiss Me,' releasing in August, features this powerful poem. It sets ablaze a defiant rebellion against the patriarchy, urging the cutting of ties and the fiery destruction of oppressive forces. With words that evoke strength, unity, and the remembrance of revolutionary sisters, the poem embraces a fierce determination to dismantle and rebuild. It speaks of interconnectedness, raising fists and holding space for one another under the watchful bleeding moon.