[poetry] why is the worst thing a man can think to call me a little girl

when your granddaughter is born / pink-lipped learning to smile / peony-bloom in her cheeks / laughing all sweetness at the end of a long night / making everything else shine / when you / feel that new love / decant your voice so light / learn again how to use your hands / look at yourself in possibility / start hoping for a long life / when she wails because / she hasn’t eaten / she’s new to the air / her palm is shaped for finger-weight / she has opinions / the world is scary / family are strangers before the knowing / when you decide to try again / when you close your eyes / when you invoke the God who raised you / when you make new promises / when you are your own witness

i would like to say for her / may she always / come home safe / walk more gladly from a stranger / know herself better than what she is told / listen to music as loud as she’d like / look over her shoulder to catch sunsets / lock doors for good practice / wear things she likes / text her friends all day / trust in men who look like you.

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I don't have a whole lot of pity for misogynists, especially ones who need to get in their cars before they can really start yelling at you.

But I do think about those arguments you hear on FOX that go something like, "What if it was your mother, your sister, your daughter?" I think some people might actually need to share blood with another person before they're able to care.

And even then, right?

God, his poor family.

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