Rebecca; 1973

Rebecca cuts out a picture of a woman wearing red lipstick

with a long cigarette holder from a magazine.

She keeps it in the space between her bedframe and the wall.

Rebecca dreams that her lips are scattered on the floor.

She cuts her feet on the shards.

Rebecca sees the blood,

watches it travel up her leg

sees it get closer to her skirt--

Rebecca wakes and isn’t a woman.

Rebecca goes to her sister’s room and watches her curl her hair up like smoke,

and politely asks for hers to be done the same way.

Rebecca imagines her ribcage crumbling as her skin swells into breasts.

Her mother tells her that girls need to suffer when they grow

so they don’t notice broken bones in the future.

Rebecca learns in school that an ice age is coming

and turns the heater on in her room,

and her father jokes that she will melt overnight.