Lessons

By Ella Lopez

From a young age, we are taught to be quiet, to simply sit and listen in a cross legged pose

Keep our heads down, be invisible, always do what we're told

To be an object of spectacle for a misogynistic audience

Where 1 in 3 women have faced domestic violence  

Because every day we have witnessed 

We have seen how our mother and sisters continue to trade 

Their identities for the heavy prize of matrimony

Being too

Irresistible

To captivating 

Well, my body is not a piece of art for you to admire

Slurs slip through teeth like shards of barbed wire 

In a country where the right to vote is harder to obtain

Than the right to bear arms