A spoken word, media-rich poem by award-winning poet Ana Maria Caballero, visually interpreted by Venezuelan artist May Toyo. From Caballero's chapbook MID-LIFE, this poem explores the overwhelming societal pressures placed on women. Toyo's accompanying drawing of a curled-up woman adds subtle depth to the words of the poem.

Ana Maria Caballero's writing has won the Beverly International Prize for Literature, Colombia's José Miguel Arango National Poetry Prize, been nominated for a Pushcart Prize + been a finalist for the Academy of American Poets Prize.

May Toyo is a Venezuelan multidisciplinary artist who creates vivid emotional portraits via gesture and color.

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And If It’s a Girl

Must I teach her this life

Of precision within And democracy throughout

Must I scrub her face with the rules

Of biology and skin Of ambition and kid

Must she learn the empty errand look

Reign in a fucking passion for shoes Gorge air digest age

Must she commit to perfume

Paint her mouth into a button Wield a plot to dress a room

And once the future is within her womb

Will she, too, think it easier to house Another boy belly balloon