We were timid girls,
that hadn’t known it until
we weren’t anymore.
Taught how to keep our lips closed
and our legs open,
too small to know why until the first
hit,
too small to know how to stop the next.
We were a little nest of sparrows,
huddling to keep warm when the dark drew near,
too weak to sing, too fragile to fly.
She said to me, “how can you fear the wolf
if you’ve never seen his teeth bared?” and I
thought back to the days I would
reach out my hand, with no knowledge of the bite.

A Sparrow Stirs its Wings is available at Amazon.com