i think i live a different life

I think I live a different life—

I watch as each of my friends

Inherit yards of white tulle

And promise themselves

To men who build homes

Around them.

They giggle about rings

And love

And children 

And I can’t help it

They just seem so fickle.

/

I think I live a different life—

Life’s backwards gift to me,

Supposedly pittance for a broken heart,

Is a broken stomach

A broken uterus 

/

I think I live a different life—

Hugs are an abundant currency

In households that aren’t my own

Where children don’t stare

At a chief whom they don’t even know

Eyes wide at the things said flippantly

Where walls aren’t daily torn down

People torn down

Hearts torn down

Like trellises in an overgrown garden 

/

I think I live a different life.