Today,

We mustn’t say,

Clitoridectomy.

We skirt around the issue.

Today,

We can’t say,

Infibulation.

No-one knows what it means round here,

Unless you do,

And if you do, you won’t say,

Infibulation.

Are you, ‘Having your bath’?

‘Going to the back of your house’?

Say your weasel words,

Some witchlike female pact,

Of lies.

What’s heroic,

About being Pharaonic?

The Egyptians deny it.

Today, no-one will pick up the:

Knife,

Razor,

Scissor,

Sharpened rock.

No-one will line up small girls,

And cut,

Cut,

Cut,

Cut.

Bucket of secret parts buried in the ground, we don’t know where.

Today we will not talk about it,

And tomorrow we won’t bleed.