The Daughter Project

Yesterday’s talk in circles like vultures above a carcass
‘til you pick out the hate in my bones
The mother marrow
Separate flesh from bone and set me free
like a Jain mountain mystery

Still say you loved me (and the next minute beat it out of me)
Forgetting biology is asking too much
And you’ve never looked at me with fresh eyes
without despising or realizing
I could be possessed by an angel or God
and still you see your decay projected onto prodigy

I will separate from you
A guest in my mother’s house
Uninvited embarrassment
Electra’s treasure locked in the closet

My rebirth independent from mother or father
While making love to the Other
Immaculate conceptualization of starting all over
And I’m goodness after all
I always was a good little girl