G.I.R.L. after Tyler Walter

By Bea

a girl can help you find the child you lost
long before you knew what a girl was.
a girl can be purple or green or blue
or red in the face when you ask about her first
dream job. a girl can be a basic girl,
can be a horse girl, a Barbie girl, a damaged girl.
a girl can be a god.
a girl can be not a girl, can be all the girls.
a girl will be assigned witch at birth.
a girl can be held back, a girl
can use her resourcefulness
to launch herself forward
in a world which does not want girls
to be girls. a girl can lose meaning,
can be just a four-letter word, repeated
before bed until it becomes just the echo of a girl

a girl can cry, can be strong, can do both at once.
a girl is just a girl until she has to be a lady
at age nine because her cousin asked her to.
a girl is powerful
but only if she’s smiling. a girl’s smile shows submission,
shows compliance, resignation, waiting
until the planets are aligned to bite back.
a girl will bite back.
a girl will take up space. a girl can be ruby, can be alabaster,
can be coral and crystal and sky. a girl will be the man
of the house when the boys don’t know how.
a girl can be generous, can be the feather blades on your skin.
a girl can be all of this or none of this
and still be a girl
and still owe you nothing.