#introtowomanhood

[youcantthinkthatcountsaslove]

Introduction to Womanhood

(in the style of "Introduction to Quantum Theory" by Franny Choi)

you come into the world by almost killing your mother in another universe she bleeds out  while the doctors  comfort your father

you are eleven when your uncles start to hug you too long/too tight/too much "gonna be a real heartbreaker, huh?" you don't quite know what that means in another universe they do more (worse) you silently thank God for this one

it's Halloween in freshman year the first time that men in a car yell at you your cousin in a fifties car hop outfit (roller skates and all) asks "why'd you yell back? it's a compliment" this is the first time you realize you are now part of the women raising girls

you are sixteen when you lose your virginity to a woman who dumps you the next week this is not the last time you will be used for the body God has cursed you with you are truly a woman now

in another universe the motions feel like love instead of approximate rape

you are barely eighteen (barely legal, always tacked on) "faggots!" men yell from a passing car on campus "your mom!" your new best friend shouts back you laugh on the way home

in a different version of the story you are found dead in the woods your body, desecrated your mother sobs and sees her body there instead your father receives the doctors' condolences engraved on your headstone "Daughter, Sister, Friend" you thank God you died young preventing "mother" from gracing the list

there is an infinite number of universes wherein these things do not happen and an infinite number where they do this version of the story forces "woman" upon you with little to no remorse along with all the prerequisites

"woman" one in six "woman" part of the 90 percent "woman" daughter mother lover woman.

#orginal poem #franny choi #introductiontoquantumtheory #introtowomanhood #woman #feminism #feminist