Getting my period feels like my body

has given up on me.

I refuse to conceive a human being

so nature takes revenge

by making me feel lousy.

Everything hurts

and a moldy sweet potato

looks sexier than me.

Period mornings feel especially hard

when you’re out of food

and your neck is so stiff that the prospect

of walking to the store 

(in the rain)

terrifies you.

But everything’s a cycle.

In less than two weeks

I’ll be in my sexual and intellectual peak,

and I will get in trouble

because of smiling

and jumping

and talking too much.