By Kate Nerone, TIWP student

 

Bitch is “Bossy” before Bitch is Bitch.

Bitch is “King of the Girls” before she is tall enough

To stand in line and have head meet line:

Sorry must be this tall to ride,

Must be this big

To be a Bitch.

 

“Bitch” he tells you,  “is what everyone thinks of you.”

And so you go running down the avenues of your memory

Looking for the places

And the conversations

You want to repent.

But Bitch is being out of breath without finding

A single sin you’re sorry for.

 

Because Bitch wasn’t being rude,

She wasn’t passing along false gossip,

Or rolling sleeves and bracing fists

When the white flag needed the breath of the breeze.

 

No. Those things were vicious.

Those things were mean,

And they were wrong,

And they require apology.

 

But they are not “Bitch”.

 

Because Bitch is when you made them stir in their seats

And chased them into the arms of ideas they didn’t recognize.

Bitch was letting silence instead of apology fill a moment,

Not saying sorry when you stood up, feet pressed,

Eyes forward, spine steady, unflinching.

 

Bitch is waves to the lazy sailor,

Claw marks on the toy they wrenched from you,

And it is the “yes” echoing down hallways they thought were empty.

 

Bitch is saying, “No, that’s not who I am.”

“And I won’t leave until I tell you exactly what this Bitch can do.”