Speaking of badass babes, Tasha Graff is one of my favorites. Here's one of her most recently poems, published with others at Epigraph Magazine:
THE FRONT ROOM
for Pete Coviello
Over beers and chicken tacos
with more spice than anticipated
you told me, Bliss does not replace grief.
I will learn, as you learned,
that happiness and sadness live in the same house,
sometimes nestled side by side,
sometimes on different floors
or just down the hall in another room.
We, too, are neighbors. We’ve moved
closer, each placing our lives into the banana boxes
I picked up at Shaw’s and later checked for worms.
Tonight, you insisted that I would survive
even this, buoying my beaten heart until it glowed
like egg whites peaked in a cobalt bowl.
Over beers and chicken tacos
with more spice than anticipated
you told me, Bliss does not replace grief.
I will learn, as you learned,
that happiness and sadness live in the same house,
sometimes nestled side by side,
sometimes on different floors
or just down the hall in another room.
We, too, are neighbors. We’ve moved
closer, each placing our lives into the banana boxes
I picked up at Shaw’s and later checked for worms.
Tonight, you insisted that I would survive
even this, buoying my beaten heart until it glowed
like egg whites peaked in a cobalt bowl.
