toilet slippers are inconvenient
when you have your period, you have to
take them off, step on top, then try to not
get any blood on them when you take
the sanitary napkin off, or when you wipe
yourself, and it drips all over the toilet
seat. and when you change out of your under-
wear, how do you keep your (dirty) feet
from touching the clean lace, or the blood,
and how do you not touch the toilet slippers,
and worse, when you walk out of the wash closet,
still wearing the slippers that say TOILET all over
them, and someone points to your feet and says,
aren’t those supposed to be in the toilet? it’s almost as bad
as blood peeking through your white shorts
and pooling on the class room seat in high school—
being a woman is just too
complicated, sometimes.
I’ve decided that I should just tell
men when I have my period. It makes things
a little less messy; at least it puts the pieces
together. at least they’re warned. at least they
can run away while they have the chance, before
the bomb goes off.
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