I’m so excited to have this poem in the Spring Issue of Rust + Moth! 

The impetus of this poem was thinking about how most American girls don’t get any sort of ritual to mark their first menstruation, and that it is a time of confusion, shame and often total silence, which was pretty much the case for me. This poem is a snapshot of my girlhood in White, suburban America–and I should also mention the heavy presence of Catholicism, which is touched upon in the poem.