Audacious Ambition

so hot until it’s not
so long as I smile
Not that smile.

less teeth, please
less vagina dentata, please
less evidence that I could devour
what devours me

How very unbecoming of me
to be becoming.

if you could just…
hold the line between HR and
hell

between performance review
and who I became
when I split in two

you see me stretched
between work and home
spilt milk and stardust on your spreadsheets

work‐life balance!
like my body is a seesaw
and not a sacred art studio

did you see me stretch beyond the stars
see me bridge heaven and earth
that’s how I got you here

made every bone in your body
in a dress
Not that dress.

“Is that what she’s wearing?”

“You don’t like it?”
I stitched it together with my very own rage
let out the seams to make room for divinity
palatability was just

a tad

too

tight

Audacious Ambition indeed
to unlearn, dismantle, double-down
to lead, mother, imagine
something new into existence.

Dismissed as if it’s ordinary.

Henceforth
the decision makers
will be the people
who make
all of the people.

Amanda Wilde is a researcher, mother, and sometimes‑poet. Trained in biomedicine, she contributes to an emerging matrescence‑focused model of health care that centers the mother–baby dyad. She enjoys swimming, dancing, and wandering new cities with her four‑year‑old daughter.