This is how I learned that “no”
cannot always save you. Thatyour hands are a prison. That
shame is something the bodybecomes. It has been years since
I’ve met my own eyes in themirror, years since I’ve undressed
myself with the lights on. I donot know where to put my body
when a boy looks at me like I’mable to save him. I cross the street
and look both ways. I do notalways wear a seatbelt. I do not
like the finality of a pen. When Idream of you and your basement
and your mouth and the shadowof your body and the way you
said my name, like it choked youon the way down but that you
loved the violence of it, I wakeand fumble for the light switch.
If I saw you now I probablywould not recognize you. Do you
know how terrifying that is?
