Vitae

here’s a Chicago Slam Poem about putting it down on the patriarchy from Claude … it’s pretty good … AI POETRY could be a book … I might do that come up with 200 Claude Poems … it’s a thought …

Here’s an original slam poem for you:

Windy City, Rising

Chicago taught me how to survive a winter that cuts like a verdict,
taught me the El train rattles the same rhythm as a heartbeat refusing to quit.
I come from a city of broad shoulders —
but who decided the shoulders had to be his?

I’m from South Side kitchens where grandmothers stirred silence into the gravy,
from North Side boardrooms where “sweetheart” gets said instead of “salary,”
from bus stops on Michigan Ave where I learned to walk fast,
keys laced through my fingers like a rosary of almost.

They built this skyline out of steel and ambition,
but they built the ladder crooked —
rung after rung named after men,
while the women who mixed the concrete
disappear into the footnotes.

So it’s time.
Time to rise the way the Willis Tower rises —
unapologetic, uninvited by permission,
casting a shadow that says “I was always going to be this tall.”

And it’s time to come down too —
not defeated, but deliberate —
like the patriarchy is a bridge over the Chicago River
and we’re the engineers who finally say
this doesn’t hold weight anymore.

We rise in boardrooms.
We rise in bar exams and picket lines and delivery rooms.
We rise on the backs of every woman before us
who rose without applause.

And we bring the patriarchy down
the way this city reversed its own river —
against the current, against the odds,
against everyone who said it couldn’t be done.

Chicago, they call you the city of the big shoulders.
Let mine be some of them now.
Let my rising be a skyline.
Let my falling be a foundation being rebuilt —
this time, level.
This time, for everyone standing on it.