Before you were born, a magic trick

I bled and bled. I thought of friends who have gone through much worse and I bled. I thought of women across the world and in our own country who have no medical care and bled. I thought of blood and its magic trick—flowing cell-by-cell through time without ever leaving the body. How differently it performs than other liquids—

 

                                                      girl, I whisper

                                                      to my belly,

                                       before they told me you are a girl,

 

                                       my body may fail you,

                                                              (sorry),

 

                                       but know this: your life belongs to you

                                       & our time together

 

                                       it has already begun.