My mother —
not content
with “grandcats”
tries to set me up.
A nice man, she says.
Goes to church.
Works at a bank.
Drives a nice car.
“Does he write?”
I ask.
“Paint?”
“Dream?”
“I don’t know,
you’ll like him,”
she insists.
Hopes.
“I have enough,”
I tell her.
“My work, writing,
the house, friends.”
“Think about it,”
she says.
“I have,”
I respond.
She asks again,
a week later.
Three weeks later.
“No, Mom.”
“I don’t understand,”
she says me.
“You don’t understand,”
I reply.
“You meet, no?”
says her boyfriend,
the older Greek man
from upstairs.
“You talk.
You like.
You get married.
No?”
“NO!”
I think to scream —
but am polite
to my elders.
“Honey,” he says,
“You are alone.
You get married,
you are happy.”
“I am happy,”
I insist,
no doubt in
Swahili.
IT BEARS REPEATING
The upcoming series of blog posts is in honor of ALL the women who can, who do, and who keep on doing – who persist – no matter what. They are part of “You Mean A Woman Can Open It,” MANIFEST (zine) #14.
All text and poems ©2026, Jen Payne
Bear artwork by Sohni Ali, website
IMAGE and TEXT CREDITS FOR THE SERIES:
- You Mean A Woman Can Open It? 1953 Alcoa Aluminum advertisement.
- Well, my boy, let’s get started, from “For me, the perfect hostess is the lady with the whip,” German Artist’s Book, 1960s.
- Best Loved Nursery Rhymes Picture Book, circa 1950s.
- Photos of Ryan Zinke from “Interior Secretary Orders Protester To ‘Be Nice’ During Visit To Bears Ears,” Huffington Post, May 2017.
- Family group on a grave marker from Athens, National Archaeological
- Museum, Athens “An American Girl in Italy,” (Ninalee Craig) by Ruth Orkin, 1951.
- Mess of Fish, Paul Klee
- The coat-stand (Porte manteau), by Man Ray, 1920.
- Calliope, Augustin Pajou, 1763.
- Vogue sewing pattern, 1980s.
- “The history of the pussy bow blouse,” Bethany Armitage, CraftWorld, March 2019.
- Atlas Was a Woman, by Céline (Melle-T), Deviant Art, 2007.
- From the collection of Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902) a German-Austrian psychiatrist + early sexologist, 1886.
- “Nevertheless, she persisted” – an expression adopted by feminists, especially in the U.S. after the Senate voted to require Senator Elizabeth Warren to stop speaking during the confirmation of Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General.
