quick, quick,
give me someone to fall in love with.

you looked at hurricanes and the hulls of great ships
       with your heart in your throat and
       your bodies offered as pitiable sacrifice—
you stared and saw power, saw death and destruction and worldly things
and, awestruck, could only think to name them woman:

       do not presume us weak.

because they walk in and they see boy,
                                              they see tarnished future,
                                              they see accidental mistake;

they walk in and they see woman,
                               they see power, too much,
                               they see bare skin,
                               they see beating heart;

they look at her and they see all the reasons why.