This piece was first published in Quarto's 2018 Spring Print Edition
They called me an Early Bloomer,
cramming tits into
ill-fitting bras before middle school,
hips widening to
a tentative smile —
nappy hair wound tight
by Mama’s milk hands —
I do not look like my Mother, though
you’ll notice we share a smile.
White Mothers hissed I wish I had your figure at
pool parties,
sipping Mike’s Hard by the water,
dripping condensation,
when I was Thirteen.
Would their husbands rather fuck
a Little Black Girl?
We learn young that our
bodies aren’t our own.
Illustration by Cameron Lee