
Jamiaca Kincaid
This is how to be a girl
How to cook and clean and sew
How to be looked at,
How to never look
This is how to be a girl
How to be soft smiles, closed knees, and proper lengths
How to be spoken to,
How to never be heard
This is how to be a girl
Not bones and flesh and heart
But obedience and tolerance and slut
This poem is about:
Me