Being Careful
It’s beyond personal
she leaves the home, clings like a whisper
To advertisements. Surfaces scrubbed
Just above bone. The shhhhhh
Of the hairpiece, pulling lives back
Lining her mouth, lips
The eyes. The sensory body
Is a worthy prize
The mouth unoccupied
Bright like a tac
Pinning the red
For onlooker to ask
In concern, passion, might.
she is Careful
To stare at the different meaning
Of night, but never enter it
Advised
To ‘Watch what you are doing’.
She minds out for her own
Small movements
In the train, legs crossed
At the station, she is printed
Life an x, ex
Expanded waiting for someone
Mouth an expected ‘yes’
Always open.
She is careful
Never to emboss her name
On paper like a false confession
Initials extended like the train
Of thought, ticket, that consolation –
Prize of having got so far
They say
Derived from 'being Careful’
For the day to cross
roads on my own
And not the exception
told as ‘female’.
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