Twenty years I’ve lived and
Still, I feel like a kid
I told him this and
Ignorant bliss
He said,

But you’re a woman
You certainly look
Like a woman

I don’t know if
It was what he said
Or how he said it
But what hunger, to
Make my skin itch
And my stomach turn

Nowhere to hide the
Slip of my smile for
The realization
Of ancient truths that
Stripped me to my bones,
Ornamental to
Searching eyes

Oh, how can a man
Drain your humanity
In just a few words?