Please don’t

make me,

I’m tired

I understand:

We are

girls.

Born to dream

we are anyone else

but Barbie

doesn’t breathe

don’t you see

we are the weeds

wishing to trees

so big they brush

the sky.

And yes,

I squeezed

my face clean, squirted

the spotted mirror

last night.

Slept

pus-stained,

soaked pillow

woke up alive.

Don’t tell me

about your belly,

I am heavy.

Healing is not

a meeting

it is a full-time job

When the new

boy told me

he loved my body,

I heard him loving

some part of me,

and I made it enough.

I went out without

makeup today

rubbed my

eyes,

raised

my hand,

flirted, crawled

to sleep

You tell me

we all want

what we do not have

and for once

I agree:

peace