Hiss

Sometimes the internalized misogyny

Bubbles up from my subconscious

Out of me

Like a noxious gas

Cracking the surface of my skin

Rocketing into my head like a loud belch.

My conscious self barks back,

Tamping down the ill odor

Of a patriarchal paradigm

We’ve all smelled its stench before

I scrub it from my body, but it always lurks

Underneath my fingernails