BOW
Epigraph: “The dancer Ginger Rogers did everything that her partner Fred Astaire did, but ‘backwards and in high heels’”
— Frank and Ernest Cartoonist Bob Thaves
I could’ve written a piece about the fierceness of the fire breathing divine feminine. I could’ve easily scrawled some lines about the sacred sanctity of sisterhood or the goodness of goddesses across the globe. I could’ve focused on the individual testimonies I hear constantly that have taught me with terrifically tantalizing tributes and terrifyingly terrible tellings at places like Sierra Arts Foundation with the Sierra Arts Literary Community, Artech with the Nevada Poetry Society, Our Center with True Colors Poetry, Shim’s with Monday Night Poetry, Black Rabbit Mead Co with Poetry and Jazz and Sexy Grown Folks Poetry and The Laughing Planet for UNR/Brushfire.
There I go mentioning fire again.
Such a piece would’ve written itself. It could’ve held butterflies, rainbows, angel’s wings and pristine sunrises somewhere in its body. It could’ve held heads high, connected authentically in a completely safe and predictable way focusing on the bountiful bevy of beauties I personally know who are intentionally bound to light the stage on fire (that’s three) in their chosen crafts. All of it would’ve been true. All of it could’ve touched you on the surface and beneath. But I felt lead to write a piece more from my gut with some teeth. So please, if I say something that offends and you’re unwilling to make amends don’t take it out on the queens. Take it out on the court jester JJZ. With this, I’m not speaking for the city or all women. I’m just speaking for me. We came here to warm up, so let’s let the fire breathe.
Men,
Demand more of yourselves
Raise the bar on beckoning and behavior
Be better
The women of our lives are carrying
the brunt of the load, while we stand aside and gawk.
Read those books gathering dust on the shelves
We need to be saved, we’re not the savior
take care with each spoken word
and written letter
I’ll see y’all on down the road, if you have the courage to walk the walk.
In the ancient time honored game of chess my favorite piece has always been the black queen. Because, although her side is made to go second according to instructions, she’ll always remain the most powerful piece on the board. Too many queens have been forced to go second or not at all. We’re going to address more than a few of those here and now.
In the game of life we must each play the cards we were dealt. And that’s if we can even get a seat at the table.
Amelia Earhart was the first woman to solo the Atlantic, and the first human of any gender to cross the Atlantic in an airplane twice. For her effort, she won the Distinguished Flying Cross, the French Legion of Honor, and the Gold Medal from the National Geographic Society.
Queen of Spades.
At the age of only six, Ruby Bridges was the first student to integrate William Frantz Elementary in NOLA. One of the dangerously pale onlookers caught a glimpse of her whispering to herself while walking the red target to enter the school and later asked her about it. “I was praying for the people who were cursing me and threatening me.” An angel capable of blessing the demonic attacks with words of praise.
Queen of Diamonds.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Notorious RBG, had the incredible privilege of being named among a list of women who “show up, speak up, and get things done” in whatever personal and professional spaces they choose to occupy. A most excellent jurist who had a lifelong battle with injustice.
Queen of Clubs.
Ashlee Haze wrote the poem “Hymn” which tore my heart open and sewed it back together better than ever.
Queen of Hearts.
Dolly Parton is believed to have written “I will always love you” and “Jolene” in the same day.
Frida Kahlo learned to love even in the midst of pain and helped human beings everywhere regain their sense of wonder through her art and the life she was bold enough to live.
Maya Angelou voluntarily gave up speaking for five whole years to prove a point, after a tremendously traumatic experience believing her own voice powerful enough to have killed the man who attacked her and still managed to polish off gems like “if you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.”
Hedy Lamarr, An actress and inventor, she co-invented a technology that is the precursor to modern Wi-Fi
Indira Gandhi, daughter to India’s first Prime Minister, later became Prime Minister herself of one of the most misogynistic populated countries in the world.
Sasha Colby, an American beauty pageant competitor won the Miss Continental competition in 2012 and she was crowned the winner of Season 15 of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2023. I’ve heard she’s more than a queen. She’s a Goddess.
Before the world blessed us with Venus and Serena Williams, it gave us Althea Gibson who won 11 Grand Slam titles including five in singles and six in doubles, reaching an astounding 8 Grand Slam event Finals in the year 1957 alone.
Marie Curie, The first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the first person to win the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields.
Joan of Arc, born into the thick of the Hundred Years War, was utterly fearless mentally and verbally, an astounding warrior physically, superior to her male counterparts emotionally and on a mission from God spiritually.
At the age of sweet 16, Zinaida Portnova poisoned the food of over 100 Germans, killing them. She was apprehended by the Gestapo, and while being questioned, she disarmed the detective and shot him in the head. In her haste to flee, she killed two more soldiers. As a single teenager, she did more to defeat the Nazi party than the entire MAGA movement has done in its lifetime. Bad Ass.
Rosa Parks said “Today’s mighty oak is yesterday’s nut that held its ground.” To paraphrase, today’s Wonder Woman is yesterday’s dismissed little girl who refused to back down to the bullshit. Forming a golden lasso of truth out of tattered pigtails, Bracelets of submission from the ropes intended to bind her wrists and the Gauntlet of Atlas yielding ten fold strength from the insults of fe-Fi-fo-fum-males who would rank on the inadequate scale of one to anything.
Monte Mader and Heather Cox Richardson are daily speaking truth to perceived power in real time pointing out the countless flaws and ethical shortcomings of this would-be fascist regime.
While the other disciples fled and scattered in fear the women stayed and put in the work.
Queens. All of them.
I’m trying to become the man who might’ve saved me as a child
The best thing any man can do for a child is to love their mother
not become the helpless hapless insolent child who needs to be mothered again and again by human beings with far better things to do, who are already tired and oftentimes laboring for free without the recognition and flowers they deserve
I was dealt a fantastic hand, trying to make the most of it. Raised by a chosen family of cocktail waitresses, older and younger sanctuary sisters, my mother’s friends, grandmothers, aunts, teachers, librarians, and other neighborhood moms who were also trying to corral the endangered species known as teenaged boys in the early nineteen nineties.
The first place I learned about Hope was peering over my Mom’s shoulder watching that character’s namesake on Days of Our Lives. Soaps were the first operas I was exposed to and the first bars in my mouth for ever speaking disrespectfully as a kid.
Placed in childcare with Oprah, Ricki Lake, Sally Jesse Raphael, Velma from Scooby Doo, Judge Judy and The Golden Girls.
I’ve been uplifted and encouraged along the way by so many other women it makes my head spin and my heart do cartwheels. We’ll call them heartwheels which far surpass the Hot Wheels of my boyish youth. Since edified and supported by divinely feminine friends, damn fine poets, counselors, mentors, coaches, exes, cougars, silver foxes, pastors and slam queens,
oh my!
Not to mention at least three multipliers of life, I’m quite convinced were angelic beings disguised as strangers sent to me at the perfect times to keep me alive.
And when it comes to spiritual adoption, taking people under my wing,
keeping an eye out for
and my heart with,
I’m a proud girl Dad mostly.
There are some boys who’ve fought their way into my heart.
Unfortunately several of those have fought their own way out of this world too soon.
Hopefully they’re waiting for me somewhere in the next so I can introduce them to their royal siblings.
So whether B.O.W. stands for
Beauty of women
Badassery of Women
an entity that’s elegantly curved, strong as a tree, meant for shooting arrows of truth at targets of inadequacy,
the rightful front end of an entity hearty enough to sail the seven seas,
or what you’d put atop any gift to the entire world,
we as men ought to bend the head and upper body at the waist as a sign of respect in greeting.
Check the line-up.
Buy the tickets.
Support the artists, this weekend
and all year round.
Give the flowers.
Spread the word.
Be in awe as I am.
In short, I’d be absolutely nothing without the women of my life.
Queens. All of them.
And this house of cards we’re living in
isn’t a game to me.
It’s why I stand for who (and what)I believe in,
why I stand by my friends, loved ones and chosen family
why I stand up for the beauty and badassery of women
because when faced with a queen
it’s hard to bow from a seated position
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Written and Performed by Jesse James Ziegler
5/2/25 At Underworld Distillery
SIDEWAYS EIGHT PROJECTS 