BY RADICALGIRLSSS MEMBER ALEKSANDRA KUSNIERKIEWICZ

I’m nineteen when the condom breaks

And I lay in bed staring at the ceiling in horror.

The boy (still a boy) is older than me

And shrugs his shoulders when he says:

I guess you’ll get the pill.

‘yes, and you’ll go with me to the pharmacy’

But he never did.

I’m really embarrassed when I walk in

(I bet they all know what I did)

‘emergency contraception please’.

Silence. Rushed moves.

‘Don’t worry, we’ll get you what you need’;

But I didn’t worry. It just felt weird

To hear their whispers,

As if it required sympathy

To be a Woman.

I sit down at my kitchen table

And swallow the saviour of a pill.

Nothing changes, I just feel relieved.

And then I remember that if I was back home,

Not away on this island of sun,

I would’ve been denied the right

To own my body,

Just like that.

But I am a Woman

Which means I had to be taken out of my body

Many times until the burning rage

Brought me back.

Now

My anger is a force

My anger is mine.