When I was twelve and my cousin thirteen

I realized we carried a gene

She met a man twice her age

This could play out on a stage

She gave him her body as us women do

I was there, I know it was true

Several months later he drove to her school

Picked her up like a drug mule

She’d send me letters about her time in that tent

Living with him not paying rent

I hid those letters from the police

I thought I was keeping the peace

For months that went on

And in my mind that’s drawn

Her and I come from a clan

Of women who will siren a man

Was it that we were told to watch our looks?

Our family’s words like hooks

“Beauty is pain” my mother would say

Made us easy prey

Her and I live the same life

Having trouble staying a wife