Act Your Rage Poems - Widow of Women's Lib

Widow of Women’s Lib

 

I am a widow of women’s lib

I married the movement not just for me

But to fuck the good old patriarchy!

We were so anti capitalist, anti couple

It was def PC to be a thrupple

And I was so bent on living independently

I took it all so literally

Forgot to get me a partner or a property

It’s a bit late now

Besides the movement is dead

So I’m a widow of women’s lib

 

I’m a spinster, I’m a modern day crone

I’m not complaining, I like being alone

But how can this happen, how can it be

That 400,000 women just like me

Could be homeless tomorrow, out on the street

Without proper shelter, nothing to eat

And those in their comfy homes, putting up their feet

And tut-tutting themselves to sleep, saying

She could have tried harder to make ends meet

She was living in a dream world

 

 

I’m a widow of women’s lib

I gave my all to the movement and where has it gone?

Where are the communes, the groovy old folks homes

For artists and musos and people who write poems?

The old revolutionaries, the die-hard bohemes?

What happened to their heart felt dreams?

What happened to all our great ideals?

We were going to be so different, or so we said

Sharing and caring and freedom for all

At what point did the fantasy start to stall?

And can we even admit that, after all

We gave in to the cult of the individual?

I’m widow of women’s lib

 

I’m a widow of my era

I became my own hero

Overcame all the obstacles thrown at me

At menopause, took the chance to set myself free

I’ve been a solo agent for a decade times three

Does it get lonely? you want to ask

Well sometimes it does but it doesn’t last

Cos if feminism has taught me anything

It’s how to have agency in everything

Although in the middle of the night I must admit

When fear of the future has me in its grip

I’m reassured that, nest egg or not, rich or poor

It don’t make any difference when you’re at heaven’s door

What it will mean is —

 I’ll be a widow no more.

 

(c)Jan Cornall August 2025

 

Act Your Rage Poems — Cancer is a War

Cancer is a war

War is a cancer

It creeps around under cover of night

Targeting victims when the time is right

Attacking them quietly one by one

Like a clever sniper or a sneaky drone

Cancer is a war

 

Cancer is a war

War is a cancer

It plays its game so cleverly

It has you thinking — it’s because of me

Just my bad luck ‘cos once I smoked

Or because I loved saveloys and ham

And all the foods I know are bad

Cancer is a war

 

 

Cancer is a war

War is a cancer

Its hostages suffering silently, extreme tortures

Of physical indignity

In chemo rooms and surgical wards

In radio-therapy suites

Their torturers are the kindest people

You will ever meet

Cancer is a war

 

Cancer is a war

War is a cancer

Billions spent on research and still no answer

In my grand parents day, it was hardly a thing

Now one in three women and one in two men

Will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime

The lowest rate being in South Sudan

The highest — shock horror, right here in Ozland

Cancer is a war

 

Cancer is a war

War is a cancer

Cos somehow I’m thinking I did something wrong

But Big Ag and Big Pharma are in this together

One makes us sick, the other makes us better

And it doesn’t take long to figure out

That our modern day lifestyle is bringing about

Our modern day plague and it’s not some random occurrence

But the chemicals used by the big companies

Who are dishing them out for breakfast, lunch and tea

In our food, in our water, and in our bloodstream

Microplastics, heavy metals and PFAS

BPAs BPSs and all the rest.

Now it’s not just birds, fishes, whales, guts filled with plastics

But humans,  yes, we humans, are full of the shit.

Cancer is a war

 

(c) Jan Cornall July 2025

 

 

Cancer is a war

War is a cancer

We must not suffer in silence, in stoic acceptance

We must fight for the land to be chemically free

For the bees and honey and the old olive trees

For the ways of the wise ones who came before

The original custodians who follow the lore

Of nature and sure, we can have all mod cons

If we harvest the sun and the wind and the rain

We can watch birds and insects come back again

For after war comes peace, this we all know

Until another Bully pops up, to have another go

 

Cancer is a war

Cancer is a war

War is a cancer