Thirteen

Aman 12

I found her as a whispered line in an editorial
stuck on the silk folds of a silver jubilee
like regret.

She had bled once in a different continent
A red thread pulled taut at thirteen
Doctors sealed the loom forever.

I was thirteen too, still learning the
topography of my brown skin.
My hands trembled like birdcage doors
unsure whether to open or close.

The article was a medical moonspeak
which orbited her wound like gravity.
Her body was an eclipse,
a shadow swallowing the sun before its rise.

Some thresholds are chasms I learned that day
shaped like hospital beds,
where young girls are unravelled.

The editorial has faded like old ink
on rain-soaked newsprint, but her sentence lingers.

And I am still standing barefoot at the edge,
where pain and empathy hold hands
like hesitant strangers beneath the doorway called thirteen.

  • Author: Aman 12 (Offline Offline)
  • Published: July 23rd, 2025 01:20
  • Comment from author about the poem: An absolute stranger's trauma I read at an age where I was beginning to understand my own becoming.
  • Category: Sad
  • Views: 17
  • Users favorite of this poem: sorenbarrett, Damaso
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Comments +

Comments3

  • sorenbarrett

    A poem of understanding and empathy. Marvelously imaged and worded it gets a fave

  • Poetic Licence

    Wonderfully written piece of poetry, of empathy and understanding, enjoyed the read

  • Tony36

    Really enjoyed it



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