Issue 18 / Summer 2019 / Abortion Ban Protest Special Issue
as i grow up
i learn
to spit out words
of distaste
to bite only the cookies
that are under-baked
to rename my identity
out of spite
in response
my mother tells me that
she who asks for forgiveness
for someone else’s sin
is a mother
& sinks back in
to the blades of her shoulders
one day i realized my rage
would never be more than
personality disorder
my passion
would never be more than
aggression
i
would be nothing more than
an angry girl
at fifteen,
i imagine a voice inside my stomach
only to silence it
in fear that someone else
will hear it
& condemn a worthless life
keep my feet on the ground
swelling to match
a full earth
Uma Menon is a fifteen-year-old writer and political activist from Winter Park, Florida. Her writing has appeared in the Huffington Post, Cincinnati Review, and Ruminate Magazine, among others. Her first full-length poetry collection, a commentary on race, gender, and identity, was shortlisted by the 2019 erbacce prize. “time-lapse of girlhood” was originally published by IRIS Magazine. Uma hopes to see her generation become the first to recognize womxn and gender minorities with equal status.