Cat Collar
I would love
To just walk home
No shadows in my footsteps
Unhurried and alone

But my body is purchase
And my freckles are targets
And my legs are stakeable
And these stares aren't shakeable

And from twelve years old
I've been too modest or bold
Not blood and bone
But a thing to own

I'm sick of people taking
My words as coy or faking
And I don't love this attention
And I'm lucky to be mentioned as

Fortunate or fair
Or ways to be compared because
Life must be so easy
For a girl who looks like mine
And I'm
Not like all the rest
With the sentence on their breast
Too flashy, too plain, too small, too tame
Too big, too tall, not too fat at all

And always happy, surely
Just smile, baby
Smile
Let me look at you a while

And if I make a fuss
On the street or on the bus
I'm a bitch or I'm a slut
Always to be appraised
No matter how I behave

And I would just, and
I would just, and
I would love to just walk home