My Country Song

Thirteen and chasing closing cattle gates 

chain smoking on the edge of an acre

It was us against the sun 

Holding hands and squat pissing the dark 

standing under the purple lights of your room

finding faces in our knees 

We were made out of styrofoam and wet dreams 

whispering about the boys we talked to online

How they would swoon over your soft hair and dusty eyes

and the way your skin winked like a pearl 

We would press our elbows together and 

lean into the gaps between our chests 

until they filled up with land 

I keep having to remind myself that we were kids 

long before we were women 

That we sat with our legs crossed because we wanted to 

That we loved being girls long before we were taught to 

That it was us against the world 

racing to claim these bodies that were still not our own

racing to claim the empty, charged air that floated around us 

like a chain dangling between someone's teeth

waiting to be pulled off a neck