Hers to Claim

A poem

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Hers to Claim

Shortly after waking to this new day, 
I hear the words:

Do not refuse any part of you.
Do not numb your knowing. Instead,

make a nest of tenderness
big enough to hold every page
of you, every age of you—especially

the small, pigtailed one who ached 
and aches to be heard. Hear her now. 
Let her rage if she needs to,

hear her until knowing pours 
like spring rain, until
every budding thing raises 
its drenched head, until 
every silenced thing

is claimed.

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