‘Grace Gets Her First Period’ by Natalie Thomas

We were perched on the windowsill of the girls’ toilets
stemming the ladders of our tights with clear nail varnish.

Grace was in the cubicle, her voice broken in panic, a conflict
unresolved and escalating, it’s started, it’s started

abruptly Grace was woman, unreachable obelisk
that girls balancing on the tip of childhood aspired to be.

We craved maturity, to feel its Marilyn-red kiss.
When it came, it was not so light:

it was asking whether tampons could take our virginity,
it was negotiating bathroom trips, an assessment of our skirts

is it clean? Am I clean? Are we clean?
In maths, a sanitary towel slipped out of my bag across the floor

its purple packaging a gaudy bruise,
something for boys to whisper about on the back row

and womanhood felt like a creased piece of paper you shuffled
under the table until it landed at someone else’s feet.

From issue #6: spring/summer 2018

About the Author
Natalie Thomas is a young poet from London. Her work has been featured in several publications including The Interpreter’s House and The Young Poets Network. Her recent pamphlet Hiraeth was highly commended in the New Poets Prize 2016/17. Natalie currently writes travel poetry at: www.penandbulb.com