I Do Not Yet Know What it Means to be a Woman

They say some girls never grow out of their awkward frames,

walking around in bodies that still haven’t yet filled,

that they thread their hands in and out of each other

until there is nothing left to unwind and wind up

They say some girls never stop looking down because cracked pavement and playground rhymes is all they know,

and who would they be without it?

How could they even begin?

Tell me that you are not utterly afraid

of the vast expanse of blue that can swallow you whole,

see everything you are,

nowhere left to hide

They say some girls never bloom,

never blossom,

always clinging to their transitional periods

like the last leaf of autumn,

like winter into spring,

but without a thaw;

A girl frosts over-

a bud before her time

They say women are beautiful and girls are pretty

Girls are halves of somethings;

Women are complete and resolute

The difference between a girl and a woman is that a girl has no balance,

always too much or too little, a girl spills over or dries up

Sometimes her throat overflows with emotion, sometimes tears fall too fast-

other times her voice cracks,