You take your clothes off right after school, the tea is on, the flame is blue. You hope this won't take all afternoon. The tv's waiting to talk to you, it's your naked body on white velour but there's no feeling, just weight on you. You get nauseous now as he speaks to you- such proper language for acts so cruel. He says "We all follow the rules, we can't very well break them, now, can we? For you, your older sisters, I've had them too. But, you're my favorite, you know it's true, you look like your mother in that thin disguise. Your parting mouth, your shutting eyes. And the way that you hate me and the length of your hair, it's the reason I made you, it's the bond that we share. You see, we're all trying to endure. You could easily go and make your own life somewhere, couldn't you?" And you keep your eyes shut, get to school on time, where you're a bag of warm fluid, where you're the corpse in the class. You walk so near to the lockers, you lay so low in the grass. Did you get that cut from the principal? Did you get that bruise on the bus? You should wash your hair more, you should look more like us. I saw you walking under powder blue skies. You looked cold still, your color was high, and I tried to talk to you but you walked right by. I don't know which I said then, hello or goodbye, you know, we're all trying to be pure. But it isn't a very easy thing now, is it? To do?