Nice

Ann Raghetti

“Nice girls don’t touch their own genitals.”

The women I know don’t
refer to themselves as girls,
don’t limit themselves
with words like nice.

And they don’t touch
their genitals —
they open the fleshy flowers
of their cunts

and massage the bud
of their clits
until they bloom
into holy orgasm.

And because they are women
who have stood alone
by rivers, walked
along moonlit shores,

they know that to draw
a single breath
is an act of faith
more powerful than words.