Pray you don't understand.
-
And I thought,
Foolishly,
I had lived through the very worst.
I had faced the big and bad,
Fallen out on the other end,
A knight without their head,
But a knight nevertheless,
And I believed within my empty metal chest,
The war had been lost,
But it was over.
My mother took my hands into hers,
Brushed her delicate fingertips over my nails.
Pushed her bottom lip out in a slight pout,
An inherited trait.
And without saying the words,
Planted your victory flag once more.
I would never be a human,
Never be free.
Born with the sin of being a woman,
Already you dripped with righteous indignation.
I have never had a father,
I had a ghost.
I had a haunting.
I had a curse.
A bane on the very bloodline,
I had tried again and again to rip from my veins-
Even as an adult,
I am not free of this treason.
She stands before me,
Always so small,
Always so fragile,
And tells me how you wish she looked
More like me.
x
