Duel

I want to go back where you came from

when he screams it in streets

by neighbors who forgot sharpness

I want to go back where I come from,

When I was child mother and I

Legs folded under, rounded back

Take this body back, wasn’t made

Mother didn’t know why we played

Didn’t know how I tried to crawl

flesh with steam or scrape

skin around fingertips dead

I want to go back where I come from

when he spits slur at her [my] body

was/ wasn’t made

almost the way a man means it

almost the way it’s said under breath

of ears. Each word sun glint knife.

go somewhere I don’t make space.

played games under white bed sheets.

became curve of egg. Me unmade.

right.

make me unmade games. Didn’t ask.

back into [my] self

with scissors, heels bleeding

of feeling years of clipping.

almost the way a man means it

her body

right. Take our body back too.