first, a woman with

too much anger and too

few words gives birth

to a baby girl,

because at least she can.

(create,

for once, not destroy.)

second, the woman

grows angrier (as they do)

and holds fewer words

than before.

third, the baby girl

becomes just a girl,

and begins speaking in

languages the woman cannot

understand.

(in turn, the woman yells.

the girl does not understand.)

fourth, the girl cries

again and again, until

her tears are less ocean

and more ink.

fifth, the girl

turns ink into letters,

letters into words,

words into everything,

and more.

(the woman is angry still,

asks her to stop.)

sixth, the girl has written

more than she has spoken.

she reaches back

toward her birth,

trying to remember

who she once was.

she discovers she is

her mother’s words.

seventh, the girl

names herself poetry:

born a product of

pain and expression.

eighth, the girl burns

her pages, eats the ashes.

(we call this cannibalism.)

ninth, the girl

tries to speak to the woman.

they cannot understand each other.

tenth,

this is the definition of poetry.