(After the style of Jamaica Kinkaid's "Girl")

 

This is how you brush your hair; this is how you braid it neat; this is how you pick chamomile flowers before the sun burns the dew off; this is how you cook the flowers; this is how you wash your hair with chamomile so it stays blond, always blond;

this is how you say, sí, papá, would you like more coffee? 

this is how you sit in a chair; this is how you do not straddle a chair; this is how you keep your hair long even if you played Joan of Arc at the school pageant, even if a saint had boy's hair; 

this is how you cross your ankles under your skirt; this is how you hold your back straight and your neck too; smile and look down when los señores talk to you; this is how you say yes; this is how you walk up stairs; this is how you keep your voice low; this is how you get a man to ask you; this is how you hesitate before the sí; this is how you smile at a boy and say, girls don't ever climb a tree; this is how you ask for help picking up a large package, even if your arms are stronger than the skinny boy's;

this is how you curl arms with your compañera when walking down the street: at the elbow, your hand on your side and hers on hers; this is how you kiss the air when your cheek touches hers; kiss the air and never her skin; this is how you share a bed; this is how you keep the camisón from rolling higher than your ankles; this is how you say goodnight; this is how you face the wall; this is how you keep your knees together and your hands to yourself. this is how you look away when in the morning she takes the nightie off and washes and splashes the entire bathroom floor, this is how you do not watch her breasts bobbing and dancing, wet and sweet; this is how you do not show your breasts;

this is how you step back when her lips come at yours, smiling lush and open and inviting. this is how you say, I don't like girls. this is how you push her back. this is how you say no. this is how you never share a bed. Never again.

this is how you avoid turning into the manflora you are bent on becoming.