What Am I If I Am Not by Micaela Walley

What am I if I am not
a girl? The pulpy body
of a dead sea mollusk,
dissolving?
             Am I crunchy?
                          The shell it left behind,
                          rotted in,            shouldering
                          deception?
What if I am made
from other shells, who
were made from mother shells,
who were stepped on so often
             that the gravity of their woman
           bones             collapsed in, made dust
                                  of themselves
                                                  beneath
                                                  the boot of a man I have
                                                  never met but can feel
                                                  still in the tips of my hairs
                                                  anytime someone asks me
                                                                              what I am?

Micaela Walley is a graduate from the University of South Alabama. Her work can be found in Oracle Fine Arts Review, Occulum, and ENTROPY. She currently lives in Hanover, Maryland with her best friend—Chunky, the cat.

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