When bandages and plasters,

the tourniquet and the dressing

are used by both genders to stop

everything from a nicked finger

paper cut to full blown emergency

amputation, the blood that comes out,

that seeps, dribbles and flows,

perhaps gushes is funnily enough

the same in both men and women

and the intersexed,

so why are tampons considered

a luxury…

 

An item that belongs to one,

too many, should not find itself

adding to the coffers at Westminster,

unless of course they are used by the C word

in charge to swathe away the fact

they might be seen as mere mortals

and not the infallible Gods they profess to be,

the blood of three and half

billion people on their hands

as they rub themselves in glee.

 

A luxury, a luxury to stop the distress,

to offer a sense of comfort or confidence,

it’s bad enough that women have to pay

for these measures of discretion anyway

but to find Value Added Tax

when only women bleed

suggests that those who believe

in the system as it stands

somehow think that to do so

is an extravagance like hot water

and true sanitation,

a luxury, a luxury

bloody luxury.

In the hands of man;

if we bled for the world as women do,

somehow we would start revolutions

so why do we not fight for our sisters

as they have bled for us.

 

Ian D. Hall 2015