Girl Work

---

In my sleep I dream of a different childhood

until I feel better        Different me has a more queer

haircut and no regrets             She spends

her teen years chopping things apart

This is a basically feminist act

She chops the furniture in the ranch house

into tinier pieces of furniture

She chops my father into a kinder father

She chops outfits into a tote from Anthropologie

and pays for them with a shiny chopping card

Chopping past events into a triumph-

ant dream life

Chopping men in half like it would change anything

I am eighteen I am twenty-four

A wind from nowhere        nails freshly crimson

Wow look at me

I know what it means to be afraid

I don’t sleep at night             She does