so please treat your body
like a friend
you don’t have to find it
beautiful
you don’t even have
to love it
*poem inspired by Cavat’s incarcerated female students
You tried to baptize yourself in toilet water and
As guards dragged you away, you cried Mama, Mamita
As though she could hear you through steel and brick.
I was raised to be still
to be silent
to play small
to be anything but what I am.
Until the day I began to raise myself
The Good Guy in the Sky
handing out love like pardons
But how can you gift me
something I already own?
I am not free until
I am not triggered
I am not free until
I can see that this is my courage
