War paint (A punk song)

By Petra F. Bagnardi

PROMPT — The way I see it ...

What I'm wearing is not a dress –

it's an armor.

It's not make-up you glimpse upon my features –

it's war paint.

My independence is very expensive;

every other day, laws are written to protect me,

or to hinder my path.

For I am a woman –

and I travel on my own;

I work for my own dreams;

I give voice to my own ideas;

my words reverberate off walls –

strong, powerful, frightening.

What I am capable to achieve,

in spite of all the obstacles,

creates waves and makes the earth shake.

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Petra F. Bagnardi is a TV screenwriter, a theater playwright and actress, and a poet. She was short-listed in the Enfield Poets' Twentieth Anniversary Poetry Competition and her work was featured in several literary journals including Masque & Spectacle Literary Journal, Punk Noir Magazine, Poetica Review, Drawn to the Light Press, Rabid Oak, and Pennsylvania Literary Journal. Petra writes from Rome, Italy.