Be Quiet

by Sarah E. Azizi (Sera Miles)

More & more I find myself talking about the blood
that cakes around my inner thighs now that a sizable
tampon doesn’t last thru the night. I chatter on 

about night sweats, my tender breasts. I don’t care
who hears. My mother ordered me to wrap soiled 
pads thoroughly, so my father wouldn’t have 

to see them. What a waste of toilet paper, I think 
now with a snort, amid pandemic & empty 
shelves. How quickly we’re taught to treat the natural 

order of our bodies with disdain, yet the distinctive smell 
of iron in the blood never killed anyone. Approaching 
“The Change,” I position myself in relation 

to the world with this history of womanhood: I am 
that which cannot be contained. I weep & storm 
& flood. I am potential space. I alone plumb 

my depths. I multiply. My body can feed 
another human for years. I am soft folds, 
radiant turns, fierce protection. My flesh 

was a home, & I’d slice the heart out of anyone
who dared harm my child. These “scourges”
of womanhood—none of it’s so bad once you 

rip off the band-aid of taboo. I don’t carry secrets 
anymore. I’m unwrapped, spread open, excavating 
the past, & I’m not ever going to shut the fuck up.

Sarah E. Azizi (aka Sera Miles) is a queer Iranian-American writer, educator, & activist. Previous & forthcoming publications include $pread Magazine, Phoebe: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Feminist Scholarship, 34th Parallel, Blue Mesa Review, Fahmidan Journal, Clean Sheets, red, The Tide Rises, Wrongdoing Magazine, and Free State Review. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico w/ her daughter & amongst friends & family of choice.