Small Means Fragile

Photograph by Leela Ghaemmaghami

When you’re small like me

you’re told what you can

and can’t do

you can’t fight or be

intimidating, you can’t lift
anything more than 10 pounds.

But you can sit there quietly.

They assume you’re as fragile

as a vase.
If you fall you’ll break…

into a million pieces, or you’re
like a tree in the fall

if the wind blows you lose

all your leaves.

I’ve been put in a box
by people twice my size.
I’m a child in their eyes.

They’re not completely wrong.
I do struggle with opening doors

but I get them in the end.

I am in fact bony but they get

so much wrong too.

I can lift 40 pounds and
I like to be loud around those I’m
comfortable with.

I am not a mouse in a room

full of tigers.