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I Can Not Write

This poem came out of the course in ‘Gender and Global Politics’ that I undertook at the University of Queensland in 2024. One of the themes that ran through the course is that Western feminism is unable to address the issues facing women in developing countries because the problems those women face there are very different to those that women face in the West.


I can not write


I sit at the table to write.


How can I write about women

when I am male?

I can not.

How can I write about First Nations people

when I am white?

I can not.

How can I write about gay people

when I am straight?

I can not.

How can I write about poor people

when I am well off?

I can not.

I can’t put myself in their shoes,

I can’t feel their pleasure or pain,

I can not.


So I write about how

I can not write.

 
 
 

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