When a woman's body is taken from her
Sometimes she holds her breath
Inside the structure of her mind
So that the sound never has to come out

Sometimes she doesn't begin to know
what was taken
She only feels a loss somewhere
deep within the ache of her spine

She finds herself sharing her story
at odd moments and with more urgency
than she could have thought possible
before she goes back again
into the breath and pull of a life

She finds herself placing her palm
in the hollow of her back
feeling for something
she doesn't know is missing
in the place where the needle poked through

When a woman's body is taken from her
a self that was meant to be born
lies broken and lost in the shadows
unnoticed and carelessly dismissed
as a child comes into the light