Me, my many selves

Those women, we say

The ones with fat hips

Dresses falling off their shoulders

Windblown hair

Sloppily applied makeup

A glitter in their eye

Those you can kill-destroy-embarrass-rape

Those you can impregnate without consequences

Those you can describe on locker-room walls

The poor ones

The ones with different features

Different hair

Who worry about paying rent

Who wear glitter in the daytime

The ones who jiggle when they walk

Whose boots go-go

Whose teeth shine in the night

The ones who want you to pay for dinner

You know the ones

The ones who got drunk and lost their friends

Didn’t say no loudly enough

Flirted, kissed, started, and did not finish

Called you handsome

Ate with crumbs

Danced with too many partners

Whose fathers didn’t care

Rode the bus, the subway, walked on the sidewalk

Those you can touch, they won’t mind

No one will listen to them

The ones who swayed their hips too far

Didn’t have a boyfriend

Made a coarse joke

Were not feminine enough

Painted nails, lips, the drinking straws of mojitos

Pop-rock lickers

Who looked at other women with appreciation

Who lust at life

Who love when they want to, as if it was up to them

Those women had it coming

They knew better and did it anyway

Spread their legs wide when they sat

Stayed too late at work

Ate with their mouth open

Thought they were better than you

Cried too much then

Interrupted you when you were speaking

Bested you a time too many

Whose makeup dripped below their eyes

Those women

Me, my many selves

Those women are also…

Me