I am the woman
your mother warned you about;
fire-breathing, Jolene auburn,
cradled by the night
and the ever waning moon
melting like candle wax
into my palms.
I am the woman
too many men have kept
secret and hidden;
I spent too long
looking at love
through the underside
of a glass bottomed boat
swallowing seawater,
bitter and sweet.
I am the woman
who blossomed beneath
the heavy thud of fists;
who learned to lie
better than love
and wear scorn in
my half-chewed smile.
I am the woman
your mother warned you about
because in my eyes
she sees her own.

Kristiana Reed is a writer and an English Teacher living in the UK. She is the creator of My Screaming Twentieson WordPress and she recently released her debut poetry collection, Between the Trees. Her work has been published in several poetry anthologies (Swear To Me, All The Lonely People, We Will Not Be Silenced), in the feminist issue of MAELSTROM Zine, in the inaugural issue (flight) from Nightingale and Sparrow, and in the upcoming issue of Turnpike Magazine.