dog days.

I wonder if it’s somewhere in my mother‘s closet 

forgotten to a box or back pocket 

maybe it was fed to a bonfire  

or neatly folded and discarded 

the letter that declared I was odd and worldly

not well-mannered enough to keep my cousins as friends

I was 10.

I grew top-heavy and quickly

there was no language for these changes

I joked about making them smaller one day

someone said, “but what about your future man?”

what I heard: this body is not mine

it is suggested that not to marry would be selfish of me

I was 13.