My body was like a new pair of roller skates and the summertime sizzled across the tall grass and red earth.
The last summer of my girlhood and the sunburns melted on my tongue like an aspirin
The last summer of my girlhood and the sunburns melted on my tongue like an aspirin
Dissolving away in a bike basket
Everyone said it hurt
Some girls missed school for the pain or the shame, running to deposit the secret on the back of their skirts into a yellow, plastic chair
And I believed I was immune to womanhood and its bridle and its bite
I remember never taking women’s pain seriously and never seeing anyone do take it seriously either
The word falls off the tongue down the cliff and into an abyss: she said, she said, she said. Who cares?
I knew the blood would be quick and liquidy and painless. What could be hard about being a woman?
Blue Jello, perfect consumption, like in the commercials
And then it came and I knew I was naked to a watching God
And I knew that every woman around me had warned me
That they were smart the whole time and I was an ant, arrogant and small
I only believed them when I was covered in blood.
