Always being told who to be and how to act.
Told I could be anything by Barbie,
but then told to look like her.
At 6 told that I had to be careful walking alone,
At 10 was told “Bleed = breed” after my body started to change,
At 12 was catcalled for the first time by old men,
At 14 was told I couldn’t be alone with my uncle,
At 15 someone I considered a friend made sexual jokes about me,
At 16 my father's friend said if he was younger,
Now 17 and scared as to how it can get worse,
The listed experiences in this life have been mild and almost nothing
Why must this be the norm for so many not women but girls?
When can a girl walk down the street in the dark without a taser?
Can we ever feel safe in our bodies?
Or are we just Women?
We are in a mournful mood this morn,
Queenie my friends cat is dead.
Overfed its fatty heart gave up.
For days it had been hiding in a box
dreaming of chasing mice
but now only dream-mice remain
to sing of her passing.
We are all distraught, some plainly overwrought;
for in cat and doggy years she was only 96.
The pageantry of her feline majesty
has us all held in obsequious awe.
If only I had been more kind,
more aware of her royal soul,
instead I flung a slipper at her
as she catcalled for a secret lover,
a noble cat who reigned not far
from here.
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