I started feeling like a woman the day i realized

that men thought of me as one.

My father taught me how to make a fist

and block a punch

when i was eight.

I'm trying to grow my nails out

because i can't defend myself when they're so short.

I'm not sure how boys become men,

but it's not like this.

They don't come of age because they fear

becoming a crime scene.

Girlhood ends with changing bodies and inviting smiles.

Girlhood is murdered on the streets, murdered in the malls,

in schools, on the pages of magazines,

put to death on national TV, with the words of politicians.

Girlhood commits suicide when girls realize it is not a safe place.