The Prize

I sold a bunkbed on Craigslist today and
when the grandmother came to pick it up
she told me about how the system had
taken her grandchildren
from their parents’
poverty
and paid
another family
for their care

how she’d fought to regain
them
to retain them
to house them
and to create safety
for them in what
turns out to be a very unsafe world
especially for bodies that
are brown or black or dark or big or small or

so I gave away a bunkbed today
and with it
a box of Legos a few old shirts
some Crayola markers
some kind words and
not enough

someone asked me if I believed in
attractiveness privilege
like
when things come easy because
you have been called traditionally beautiful
girl next door
all your life
and I think that I have always been
on the cusp of “Grab her by the pussy”able
and I wonder if that has done me better
or worse
if that is a…