Dear Vagina Owners/ Vagina admirers Welcome to my body. When Red Runs Blue is a collection of poetry centred around menstruation, and exploring the complicated relationship between patriarchy and the female reproductive system. The reality of womanhood bleeds through these pages, in all frequencies, beautiful, violent, political. We are breeders but it is not safe to do so. Autonomous sexual desire is forbidden. This collection highlights the effects of silencing bleeders and the damaging consequences that have inevitably ensued. Come and explore this womb. My main three anchor points for these poems are menstruation, shame and sexual liberation for women. My poetry touches on images of women’s menstrual bodies across history, showcasing how visceral mistreatment stretches from witch hunts and early insane asylums, to contemporary ways of looking at women as unstable and hysterical, so ingrained in our psyches as to become the norm. I also explore sapphic sexual relationships with and without the intrusion of the male gaze. These are the voices of bleeders in both public and private spaces who have been shunned and put on the back burner simply because they have vaginas. My own determination to expose the rich, fleshly life of the body in vivid, defiant imagery refuses to bow to patriarchal erasure and control. I want to give voice to the cycles, strains and stigmas that surround the womb, and celebrating the pleasures, powers and nourishment that still arise from its inner spaces.