I used to think that my legs and thighs were so unattractive with cellulite and varicose veins that I should do the world a big favor and keep them covered! When Mama Gena assigned us the homework of writing an ode to our thighs, I resisted at first. Love my thighs? Yeah, right. Then I thought about my ancestresses, about the long line of women from whom I inherited my thighs. . .
Map on My Thighs
My thighs.
The thighs of my mother,
my grandmother,
and the women who came before them.
My thighs appearing again and again through the ages,
ample, strong, silky and white,
sensitive to soft strokes and the touch of lips,
laced with webs of fine blue lines....the map of Ireland, my mom says.
A map passed from mother to daughter
in hopes someday one of us will find the way back home.
A map on a pioneer’s thighs straining and strong working the farm,
A map on an immigrant’s thighs steady against the pitch of ocean waves
and spread wide giving birth in the bowels of a ship.
A map on centuries of thighs bending over potatoes and peat,
kneeling in supplication in a church of male priests
and worshipping a virgin of whose thighs no one speaks.
A map that grows more pronounced as we age,
demanding attention, our fine lines of blue veins.
Leading to where our ancestress once lived,
the ancient Druid priestess thighs,
ample, strong, silky and white
luxuriating in soft strokes and the touch of lips
dancing, singing and celebrating the kiss
of joyous Celtic Goddess thighs.
And I’m honored to be the descendant
to heed the call written on my thighs.
For now I find myself among daughters
of Goddess worshippers from worldwide.
All with maps bringing us together,
to reclaim a sacred impenetrable place.
All with maps, leading us home.
And we are home.
Thanks to the gift passed from our mothers.
Thanks to our thighs with maps of blue lace.
SG Kathy Sorensen is a playwright, screenwriter, teacher and thanks to the SWA Mastery Program, she discovered she's also a poet! Kathy performed "Map On My Thighs" at her very first poetry reading at Mastery graduation! Kathy and her thighs joined the SWA in 2006, where they have been a student in two Mastery classes, a Pleasure Team volunteer in two Mastery classes, and served as a Big Sister!
