Neon Shades of Youth

^{With lines from high school students after Roe was overturned.}

it’s not ohvulation it’s awvulation.

I am a young woman
            in America.

            this is my neon youth.

there is a man in a black coat at the back of the dark alley,

and I fear I am only waiting
            my turn.

you cannot build a human from my organs after I die—

a man’s body,
            seminal vesicles that look like a brain
behind his bladder.

a woman’s heartbeat, as red as a wax seal,
hides a letter they won’t let us read.

where does the egg go?
            are we shells or are we roots or are we buildings or are we torches.