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*I haven't been a girl under your roof for a long time now. 
Repudiated from the hilt, 
I've built myself up as a cage-of-bones woman 
beyond your reach, 
the smell of cinder lingering long on the palms 
and behind the crooks of my knees. 
Even when I'm hurt, I'm not entirely opaque, 
have uncovered in time the consistency of melting ice, 
though perhaps not fast enough. 
I marvel at the length of the road, 
at the spiders squirreled away safe in their corner-of-the-story webs. 
I used to look on them with kindness as a child, though increasingly, 
my thoughts make scarce sense to me. 
Music seems peppered across great distances,
Ones I'm wearier, as I grow, to travel. The lure of adventure
Held lovingly under my tongue like a bit of chalk.
I think it's closer now, my moment of indecision
I used to think it was a question of strength.
Whether I could hold my own spiraling featherweight
If and for how long I could stave off the siege.
I understand now the marauders are already within;
That I am writing this under foreign occupation;
That if you simmer long enough, the meat comes off the bones,
That the taste is only foul under my palate as long as I'm unwilling.
I must accept. I have no choice.
So instead, my choices must have me.*


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