Rewriting

Only in fairy tales is disaster averted.
   —Shara McCallum

A girl child is born. She is brown. She reads a book. She kisses her first boy. 
He calls her snow; she calls him charming. She has sex with him—in retrospect 
considers consent. Sic transit Gloria; glory always fades. She is lamb; she is 
slaughterer. She has sex with him again. She does this when she’s date raped; 
fucks him five times to prove to herself she wanted it. She falls in love with an 
alcoholic. It’s cliché, and all she’s ever wanted was to be wanted. She tells no 
one. She forgets to tell herself. She writes a book about a woman—a girl child, 
who is brown.