I have legs
that are always battered and bruised.
There is a filth
associated with the fact
that someone molded you
in their image, not yours.
Do you belong to yourself?
Did you ever really?
Your mother did not teach you
the treacherous ways
in which a woman must claim herself
over and over again.
Bloody tongues,
hesitant hands,
these are the things
that will kill me.