The Talk

Katelyn Wang '23

FACE THE TRUTH, BELLA GALLUS '24

The Talk

Katelyn Wang '23

When your mother calls you to the kitchen

But not because you broke a vase

Failed a class

Or any other done disgrace

When your mother looks into your eyes

A tiger teaching their cubs to roar

But for protection rather than to fight

Her wrinkles crease under the light

Her hands fold with hardworking ceases

The ones wrung with work

Pawed the dream

And trimmed the flowers to make it seem

That you were safe.

Those trembling ten, from a different land

So ached, yet hardened, to the new

She speaks:

Words shaken but firm

A badge of duty bowed every peak

To show her teeth and bear the claws

To prepare for unhappening defeat

But a predator you are not.

More so you are prey

You need to hide

Leave the vines be

So you don’t bother making noise

Camouflage, or so they call it, but don’t blend new shades

Just be invisible

To the hunter’s sniping rifle

You need to stay quiet

Mouth shut, eyes slurred

Must your sharp teeth cut the

Insides of your own mouth

Do not let them trace

A place

To shoot and fire

Tigress and tiger cubs?

Not so much.

Mother ends the warning

Not as a prideful triumph

But as a fearful plead

As the hunters lurk outside

Ripping at our nest

You can only know this feeling:

When the hunter preys for you

When mother begs for you

When you are no longer safe as king

and you have had

The roar

The talk