Heather Newman
do•mes•tic
Used as an adjective, the word relates to the running
of a home or to family relations, such as a domestic
chore, domestic service or domestic worker
but when used as a noun, she (preferred pronoun) is that person
paid/or unpaid to help out with menial tasks such as cleaning
and cooking and scrubbing and ironing and mending and when
expanded, domestic can mean more than a helper or homemaker,
indigenous species or quiet pleasure, domestic can mean
in charge of a household, even lady of the house
Defined on a broader scale, she is neither foreign nor international,
she exists or occurs inside a particular country;
for example: the current state of domestic affairs;
or in simpler terms, she is a product not made abroad
Synonyms for domestic abound: maid, housemaid,
maid-of-all-work, charwoman, charlady, char, daily,
daily woman, skivvy, scullion, and (the preferred term
used at country clubs) Mrs. Mop
Used as a verb: she domesticates a lion in the wild,
she domesticates the cubs in their den,
she makes them fond of, and good at, home life
and all the tasks it involves
Placement of domestic in word order should not be confused
with world order, dominance or domination
is reserved for the he: he is male, boy or animal;
he is spelled H E for high explosive, high efficiency,
His Eminence, His Excellency
He (replacement for God) is used in most grammatical situations
while she is used for boats and ships, the female symbol
pertaining to vessels or wombs, and much like the domestic,
her function is to contain: She is one fine vessel.
On a side note, domestic nouns (male or female) can be contained
or concealed in containers on domestic and international waters;
lack of documentation or channels to a mother ship can be cause
for muddied waters, bordering on the illegal
Of course, there are exceptions. In World War II, the German battleship
Bismarck was regarded as being so magnificent that it was described
using male terms, but back to the colloquial do•mes•tic and why it’s
always a girl, all ways a girl, all weighs a girl
object
to be or not
to be that thing
that ring
that-a-girl
easy does it
is animal instinct
the thing to make
cat woman
sex kitten
ski bunny
a real dog
when the sky is falling
don’t throw like a girl
man-made things
put a gun to your head
Heather Newman’s work has appeared in Barrow Street 4x2, Hanging Loose, Love's Executive Order, The Pi Review, Right Hand Pointing, Matter, The Inquisitive Eater, New Verse News, Voices From Here, vol. 2 (Paulinskill Press) and more. A new poem will appear in Storey Publishing's 2021 anthology, How to Love the World. Heather holds an MFA from The New School.