“My religion is other women.
This isn’t tongue in cheek.
My religion congregates around a fire,
in a cramped room we booked to talk,
in an idling car for way too long,
in someone’s living room,
in the cold,
because there’s more to say and hear.

There is a spark of divinity I know to look for
when she says something she’s never said out loud before.
There is a spiritual rumble in the dehydrated voices of women
who aren’t used to saying so much.
When I hear another woman articulate something
I’ve never been able to,
that’s the voice of my god speaking to me.
It's ancient, forbidden knowledge,
and it fills my body with my self.

There’s power in our warm red blood.”

- Lane Lloyd