the girl who bled


look at your hands tremble

not from cold nor fear,

but the weight of what you believe to be yours⁠—

a family, a dancer, a dropout

a crushing failure only to snap eyes with those in power.

and each time you stand

you absorb two ways

fighting gravity with the ease of xylem

yet losing yourself to the endless savannah

take your finger off the top of the straw

because every meal served, every hand held

bleeds with your love

your identity

until you become the water and not the glass.