This is For the Girls Unbroken

This poem is for the girls unbroken,

the girls whose light could never be stolen,

the girls whose heads were in the clouds

until they crash-landed

into ignorant hands

that scattered their innocence

into a thousand shards

that would take

a search party of therapists to reclaim.

This is for the girls who turned their silence

into a bone drum for other women

to march back to themselves with.

This poem is for the girls who rewrote their stories,

reclaimed their glory,

and chose not to change their address to bitterness,

close the blinds on their trust,

or throw away the welcome mat to the possibility of good men in the world.

This poem is for the girls who have had to endure a hand on their back too long,

for the ones who share their location on a first date and say,

“Just in case.”

For every Uber we get into with pepper spray,

is there a corner of this earth that we don’t feel like prey?

This poem is for the girls whose “no” didn’t carry enough weight against his strength,

but still learned to become their own

center of gravity.

This is for my temptresses,

who turned charm into a weapon,

my magician girls who perfected their disappearing acts,

the dragon women who grew fangs instead of let themselves be eaten alive.

This poem is for the girls unbroken

a love letter to their innocence

your light can never be stolen…