hands are not about politics / this is a poem about love / and fingers/ fingers interlock like a beautiful zipper of prayer

--Sarah Kay

Plenty of 14-year-old girls write poetry. But few hide under the bar of the famous Bowery Poetry Club in Manhattan’s East Village absorbing the talents of New York’s most exciting poets.

We need to teach our daughters to distinguish between:

A man that flatters her, and a man who complements her;

A man who spends money on her, and a man who invests in her;

A man who views her as property, and a man who views her properly;

It was the coldest winter ever – so cold that many animals froze to death.

In an effort to save themselves from this icy fate, the porcupines decided to gather together to fend off the chill.

They huddled close to each other, covered and protected from the elements, and warmed by their collective body heat.