It’s a dangerous world out there darling

Mothers; hide your daughters inside.

Close the curtains, lock the doors.

Let them not see the mountaintops

nor feel the spray of the ocean wind.

No, you must keep them inside.

If you open the windows they will be

blinded,

by the fierceness of the sun,
wakened by the howl of the wind.

The open spaces will sing to them

and the spine of the mountains will be forever etched

to the backs of their eyelids

The injuries of the world will grow into them

a steady drumbeat in the stomach,

And they will never forget.

Not the brightness of the sun,

nor of its burning.