One Thousand Years

They comment on my smallness with hidden intentions (Twenty-one), eyebrows plucked to seem grown Men who find me attractive have something beneath the surface I shrink into myself, newly formed Already they've tried to take me In taxis, in alleyways of unfamiliar cities They demand my name But never ask how old I am (Time inside me) I am one thousand years old Each touch aging me beyond measure Generations of exhausted women Live within my bloodline (We remember everything) I am one thousand One thousand years older when touched I create false identities at parties Cut years from my age without being asked Fifteen, seventeen — no one even hesitates No one stops wanting I vanish like all the girls around me All the girls who came before, all who will follow They demand my name But never ask how old I am (Time inside me) I am one thousand years old Each touch aging me beyond measure Generations of exhausted women Live within my bloodline (We remember everything) I am one thousand One thousand years older when touched Feel the weight of women's history Unlined faces that betray only in their thickness A small shoot of gray the only evidence Of time passing through our bodies We carry forward, backward Stories unspoken but never forgotten Everyone sees a little girl Yet still they hunt Still they bare their teeth in hunger I am so tired One thousand years of existence One thousand years more with every hand that reaches I am one thousand years old Each touch aging me beyond measure Generations of exhausted women Live within my bloodline (We remember everything) I am one thousand One thousand years older when touched (A thousand lives lived) The hunting never stops (We endure) The cycle repeats endlessly (Ancient wisdom) One thousand years old... One thousand years older when touched... (We survive through time)