Running Home – Kristiana Reed

I’m walking home

holding my house key

pointing down, between

two fingers.

A weapon

 

because the sun has set

the street lamps are on

and I’m a twenty four

year old woman.

I’m wearing boots

jeans and a hoodie

but wonder if the flesh

on my palms

will be cause for a judge

to say she was showing

too much skin.

When he ponders

 

the trauma of a woman

undone; her rage

and her no

not enough. She

should have done more,

she should have worn more,

she should have run faster,

she should have looked

behind her more,

she should

 

have considered

the temptation

of the breath on her lips,

in her lungs and in her blood

more.

 

I’m running home –

praying there won’t

be a monster waiting for me

in the darkness

 

behind my closed

front door.

 

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Kristiana Reed day dreams, people watches in coffee shops, teaches English and writes. She is President of FVR Publishing, a curator on Blood into Ink, a collective member of The Whisper and the Roar & Sudden Denouement, and blogs at My Screaming Twenties. She is 24 and is enjoying the journey which is finding her voice.