Jezebel Day

Purple is the color I choose to wear
This day: a birdhouse day.
This day
My brother walks me away.

The last thing my dad gives me,
The only strand
Of things he gives me--
Aside from explanations and excuses
Since I have became a woman--
Is a perfect line
Of pretty, round, soft-looking things.

But my pearl is purple
Since I have become a woman.

It is gorgeous,
A whole world of round and deep,
Hard alternating with soft.
My pearl loves touch,
Belongs to me,
Belongs to my body,
Buoyant and lustrous,
Fleshy and pounding purple.

When it was white and pink
It was hidden.
It was secret and misrepresented.
Then it was black and blue.
And blue, and blue and blue.

Then I discovered it.
My pearl is purple.
It belongs to me,
To my body,
This day and every day.