They say they know when a child will be beautiful when she’s older
From the very moment she is detached from her mother’s womb and labeled as “female” on her birth certificate,
Her beauty will define her
“With eyes like those you’ll just know she’ll break so many hearts!”
They say a girl crosses the golden bridge to womanhood the second she menses
The sign that she is ready to bear children
Nobody told her that her that it would feel like someone opened her up, give her organs a good twist, then sewn her back up
They also failed to mention that she would be shamed for her blood until the day she no longer bleeds
The weight of the world sits on her shoulders yet they always figure out how to add more
“Never open your pad too loudly in a public bathroom, nobody can know!”
They say that evil takes the embodiment of a teenage girl
As her adrenal glands fight to hold the estrogen that rages within her
This is the fuel she uses to light her fire
Her body begins to bud
Using her development as an invitation, the men in her neighborhood can’t help but to stare
“These girls should have to write their ages on their forehead nowadays!”
They say only the smartest get into good colleges
But when the frat boys slip her their special concoction of ketamine and testosterone
She can’t help but to disagree
Everyday she learned how the cells in our bodies divide and how nuclear bombs are produced
Yet she never did learn how to cover her drink well enough
“She’s definitely asking for it!”
They say a woman loses her beauty at a certain age
When the collagen begins to collapse
And the tide of the angry sea within her finally calms
Although she is a mother, a daughter, a sister, a teacher, a healer, a fighter
The reflection in the window of Gucci on 5th Ave will always speak louder than her PhD in Nuclear Physics
“Have you thought about getting botox?”
They say a woman is no more than a mound of flesh
Not a single thought behind her eyes
A baby making machine
Only created for men to lust after
Made in the image of Adam
Nothing more, nothing less
But I wonder when they’ll realize that Adam was nothing without Eve
And there is nothing quite like the fire that burns through estrogen
The anger, the rage
Festering and building year after year
The mind of a woman is unlike anything on this earth
Birthed from constellations and black holes
Mysterious and never to be understood