i am absolutely nothing like a rose

you ask yourself what you're going
to do with me when my roots don't
fit in the brown ceramic pot anymore--
you think it might be time
to cut me down by the ankles
& turn me into a solitary bouquet--
you want to clutch me in your teeth
& dance in the long floor-length mirrors--
parade our reflection--
that's what you've been taught to
do with a girl-body full of 
thorn-- i'll cut your cheeks when you
bite me-- won't i?
this is how you make 
a lady out of us-- i never learned
anything from a mirror--
when you're finally
bored the water in the vase will
have turned to froth & my
petals broken off like
clementine lobes-- i'll smell
rotting & sweet so you
know it's time for a new
rose to make herself into 
a girl for you-- 
i'm here to announce that
i have never been anything like
a rose nor did i want to be loved
like one-- 
i deserve to be loved like
my mother's African violet--
the one next to the sink
so she doesn't forget to water it--
bruise myself onto the counter top
& open dark green leaves
to clutch fist fulls of sun--
you know nothing about where
we keep our thorns--
we're orchid neck & tulip
frown & knuckles hidden somewhere
in the hyacinths out the front 
window-- 
we sip ourselves 
from branches of honeysuckle--
we're tired of living off
of vase water--
i'm absolutely nothing like
a rose-- i keep
dirt up to my waist & my
teeth in my own throat--
i grow un-apologetically 
in the windowsill
if you come looking for me--
i'll be the bruise under your
eyelids-- the other face
in the mirror on the medicine cabinet--
i had wanted so badly to be loved
i was okay with turning red
& living short & slender
in the glass veins of your vase--
no-- i am absolutely nothing
like a rose-- none of us are--
i'm forgetting to water myself--
chewing sunlight from the porch &
sitting bent over
a toilet coughing up thorns--