The Story of Menstruation1 Have period sex and you’ll likely conceive a monster. You cannot properly churn butter that time of the month. You must stay in a hut, you must curtsey with your back toward the sun, you must roll around on a sandy beach in a black bikini in order to receive forgiveness. 2 Fabric on a clothesline flaps in the wind. Red rag! yell the teenage boys who run by. The girl doing wash stiffens, strokes the handle of the knife at the bottom of her wicker basket. 3 I take my lunchbox into the bathroom. I am eleven and a half. The rule is bags, backpacks stay in the classroom during the school day. So my lunchbox becomes a secret purse with everything I need. 4 You must not speak about it. Instead spread the blood over a field of crops. Throw menstrual cloths at unwanted suitors. Laugh until you cry.
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