The Thing About Mean Girls

By Sophie Seger

The thing about mean girls

Is that we are the ones who decided to call them mean

Instead of hurt girls

Strong girls

Unapologetic girls

We call them mean and maybe they are

but they are still our sisters.

We all came from the same soil

the same blood that fell from the women before us

Air forced from lungs

Skin turned grey

Cold

Still.

Perhaps we are all mean girls,

Quiet girls

Good girls

Shy girls.

We all came from silence

From women who planted feet into the soil and refused to run,

Who looked men in the eye and told them no.

And I bet some of them were mean girls, too.