Bless This School for Girls by Warsan Shire

Bless This School for Girls

by Warsan Shire

(published in he2022 book, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head from Rocking Chair Books)

Falis taught us more about our bodies

than we’d ever glean from the curriculum;

periods, uterus contractions, early symptoms

of cysts, signs of infertility, abortions and where

they were punishable by death, miscarriage—

how long it took to pass the clots and why

you shouldn’t flush as a reflex. Our lady of red

rags—bless her—no one ever thought to ask

how or why she knew these things.

First of all, the title of this poem is so appealing to me (as is the title of the book in which the poem is published).

I love complicated poems, but I also love ones like this: short, with a clear reason for being, and--of course--a simple, but killer, ending. The list of what the teacher has taught these girls, outside of the set curriculum, is a wonderful list. The act of women helping girls understand themselves and their bodies is powerful, and the fact that this poem lists the things taught so matter-of-factly makes this act stronger.

Then the last sentence, broken into 2+ lines! "Our lady of red rags"--perfection! After that list what else could she be called? We need a little bit of humor here, after the previous list quickly moves from the mundane and fairly common to the heart-breaking. The religious allusion "our lady" is strengthened by the "bless her" which evokes nostalgia, gratitude, and sincerity.

The second part of the sentence is what really tugs at the heart. So much packed into that! How children cannot (thank goodness) comprehend everything going on in the lives of the adults around them. How all of us are often too wrapped up in ourselves to ask about others. How a teacher can affect us, and how we rarely tell them how grateful we are. How knowledge can come from personal experience, and how we adults sometimes need to hide our experiences from the young people in our lives. How a little bit of guilt can stay with us for years and even decades.