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Wall of a Bathroom Stall (Vicarious Pain for the Girls Who Have Been There)
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My Favorites 19 years ago today I was born.
They say my Daddy was strong and tall,
But I can’t say I care ‘cuz he wasn’t there
And on a dirty floor Mama endured the pain all alone. . .
Head pressed against the wall of a bathroom stall.
8 years ago this very week . . .Mama brought a man home.
She said, “He’s the one so you best act nice and wear that dress that makes you look like a doll.”
He was the one all right.
The one that made me kick and scream, but there wasn’t a soul that heard me call.
As he ripped me from me and left me a shell of shame huddled against the wall of a bathroom stall.
12 years old Junior High—the favorite girl in these hallowed halls.
Faces and names and dates escape me,
But I knew they needed me so I gave it to them one and all.
‘Cuz everybody loves you when your name and number are scrawled on the wall of a bathroom stall.
There was one boy that I remember.
He had a sexy smile, and he said “I love you” with the sweetest drawl.
I gave him the news and he disappeared.
A year ago last month it was my turn to bear a child alone while clawing the wall of a bathroom stall.
So now you know why the blood is flowing freely from my wrists,
Why my skin now takes on this ghastly pall.
Why I’m broken and bruised and why amongst this shattered glass I’m sprawled.
And why my life is grotesquely smeared in crimson . . .
Against the wall of this bathroom stall.
And my baby, my sweet baby
I’ll not allow her life to turn out like mine;
I’ll not watch each day make her countenance fall.
And so her still-pure life ends here with mine,
Still-innocent body dangling from my belt. . .
Which I tossed over the wall of a bathroom stall.
