You Say

You say you can take rejection

Not like these other men

So you take it out of my hands

I thought it was mine to take

I thought I chose when to reject you

But it is not rejection unless you say it is

With your male words

And male laws

And male science

And male disapproval 

I pack my bags to leave the house

And you say I can leave whenever I want

You give me the permission I never asked for

My choice is a country fighting for its independence

That you will not acknowledge 

That you will not call by its name 

The paper receipt of this poem

Taken from my hands and torn and thrown away

If you erase the woman would you erase the evidence of rejection? 

From other men,

From your memory,

From time?

If you respect my rejection, where is the presence of disconnection? I cannot find in any of these gifts that you have offered me.

I should not find you anywhere

There is no world among all these worlds, no society or category, no language, in which the both of us connect, no country that we are both citizens of

This is my wish 

No god will protect you from my rejection