.
Sugar and Spice
Nice girls kill themselves
rather than their enemies.
Nice girls prefer to swallow the poison themselves
rather than watch their rapists choke on their own bile.
Nice girls know how to make polite conversation
while walking on piles of broken glass,
feet bloodied, but not a hair out of place.
Watch a nice girl, with her lovely measured steps,
her nails are trimmed and perhaps painted pink (never red).
She wears her mother’s brooch over her heart
like a medal for a war she never won nor lost.
Casualties have no sides.
Bio:
Laura Gail Grohe lives in western Massachusetts. She believes in the power of poetry to change the world.
(author retains copyright)
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