Poetry: “Puberty II” by SG Huerta

Puberty II

my first period at age 10;
I woke up on my dad’s couch;
blood on my thighs;
5am in the feminine hygiene aisle,
foreign to us both; I grabbed
the first and least-pink thing I saw;
this was not the only time
I hid blood from my father;
his wife found small cuts,
poorly hidden by my black hoodie
on a triple-digit summer day;
nothing came of it, any of this;
in high school I pierced every
bit of skin that wouldn’t scream
at the touch of the needles
given to me by a friend’s older sister’s
older friend; by college,
the piercings closed up; by college,
blood didn’t make me
squirm, anymore; humbling now
to hear my voice crack
a decade late; lather T gel on fading
shoulder cuts like my
life depends on it; my life depends on it;
friends married or getting there
while I find acne in places new to me
and learn how to love others
and myself; weighing the cost of losing
my tits while I pick at scarred flesh.

About SG Huerta

SG Huerta is a queer Xicanx writer. They are the author of the poetry chapbooks The Things We Bring with Us (Headmistress Press) and Last Stop (Defunkt Magazine). Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Offing, Split Lip Magazine, Infrarrealista Review, and elsewhere. Find them tweeting @sg_poetry or at sghuertawriting.com