Girlhood

Those eyes

Poured too many tears

Over a face

That flinched 

one too many times,

And seeped into the lips

That threw cries of mercy

To the unforgiving cold. 

In another world, 

I’m still eight.

And nothing has happened.

But in this world,

I’m sixteen.

I haven’t felt sixteen in years.

I was just a kid

When I was told I was born to bleed.

And bleed I have.

All over the hands that raised me. 

Baptizing strangers

In the red waters of my birth.

Spilling down the arms

Of those who have tried to understand.

I’m drowning.

I swallow 

mouthfuls of pain

So no one else 

Has to taste it. 

I’m just a girl

Lying stagnant in the blood

Of a woman.