You Should Have

• Gabrielle Bradley, Grade 10
• Poetry
• 2018

If only you had learnt my mind before my body.
discovered the "I'm fines" between
crooked lines and late night bouts of anger
read the character amid stretch marked hips
and cracked lips
mapped out my retorts on damp eyelids before i could open them to place my disagreement
instead of trying to paraphrase my words to fit between your spaces
(you should have) accepted that my words created countless space not just for your fingertips to be placed or to roam
but for someone, one day, to love my body as much as they love their own.