Cade Leebron

Late

for the girl in Lubbock, TX, murdered by her step-father

At six or seven I played babies, thought all us girls
would make fantastic moms. Girl with a mental age

            of six or seven. Dead now! Would you like details? Would
            have been a great mom, maybe not, but I’m feeling a little

argumentative. So yeah, fuck it, she would have made
a great mother. She got her baby all sliced out instead.

            By a man she might have called father when she could
            stand to. Girl who had a name but we don’t get to know.

Instead we get her throat cut, womb cut, every rape before
that final insult. What a list. Burnt up for her fertility. Why

            is this what we have of her? All those instructions
            we’re given, tell your mom, the cops, got her nothing.

Can you build a revolution on the body of a nameless girl,
or do we need something more specific?  I would like riots

            in the streets, please. Open up your doors so we can burn
            down whatever’s inside, thanks very much. I wonder if she

too felt this need to be polite. I want to know her
favorite sneakers. If she understood her pregnancy,

            had a name picked out. At six or seven I was really good
            at naming the fake babies. Since she is a victim of a sex

crime. No name for you, girl. What false protection. I hope
someone is braiding her hair, making her dinner, too.