It will take you by surprise: a warmth in your chest,
a sunbeam in your bathroom mirror, a drop of honey
from a bird’s beak. Not after the years in which
you cradled womanhood like shrapnel to your chest,
your prize of war the taint of touch in the darkness.
I have seen you mutate in the compost of your closet:
a razor of light, a lipstick, a beanie, feral thing
in a silk skirt. I have seen you at the windowsill
wearing sleeplessness like a lace veil, aching
to plead the euphoria of birds. Go, then - O girl,
O derivative of, gather up these snowflake-
tender bones and keen them into flight.
Someday you will learn to reach into the back door
of your body and fling it open. Someday you will learn
that wholeness was just a trick of the light.
a sunbeam in your bathroom mirror, a drop of honey
from a bird’s beak. Not after the years in which
you cradled womanhood like shrapnel to your chest,
your prize of war the taint of touch in the darkness.
I have seen you mutate in the compost of your closet:
a razor of light, a lipstick, a beanie, feral thing
in a silk skirt. I have seen you at the windowsill
wearing sleeplessness like a lace veil, aching
to plead the euphoria of birds. Go, then - O girl,
O derivative of, gather up these snowflake-
tender bones and keen them into flight.
Someday you will learn to reach into the back door
of your body and fling it open. Someday you will learn
that wholeness was just a trick of the light.
Alison Tan is a Southeast Asian writer, currently studying at the University of Oxford. You can find her Twitter at @alisonctan.