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Artemis


 
She dyed her hair gray last week,
 
standing on the white tile in her friend's bathroom.
 
Her head swam when she bent
 
over, felt the edges of her knees chill.
 
'Pretty woman, don't have gray hair.'
 
Her eyes went yellow as piss, 
 
fierce as fire. 
 
She poured eyedrops in, to fit in, when she was sixteen, 
 
and they stopped working, quick. 
 
'Pretty woman, wolf-eyes, beast.'
 
She had two piercings, 
 
one in each eyebrow
 
And a diamond
 
set in her front tooth.
 
'Pretty woman, let's see that shiny smile.'
 
one tattoo, a rainbow, crouched quietly beneath her heart.
 
In shades of gray-
 
A message for men.
 
She eschewed labels.
 
'Pretty woman, let me change you.'
 
She left our town, today.
 
She took her friends with her, a band
 
of tough women in black, hair glowing silver 
 
like the moon. 
 
'Pretty woman, don't go.'
 
and she went. 
 
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