Every 28 Days

Barbed wire cinches around my ovaries

and no energy for anything

I'm sad and scared,

the tears welling up inside

before someone enters the room

I'm quick to snap curt remarks

Suddenly I'm sexy and organized

before my pants drop two sizes

Walking around with cotton in my vagina

or a sticky pad in my underwear

feeling the clotted blood slide between my lips

as I walk to the nearest toilet

No, I don't want to go camping

or swimming right now

I need something for gassy balloons of pain in my abdomen

and to make five days go by.