Inspired by an interview I heard on BBC Newshour – a reporter asked a Kenyan girl what she wants men to know about girls and she replied “A girl is not a dog.”

A girl is not a dog

Because

A dog earns respect when it

Bears its teeth –

All a girl earns through submission is the right to live.

Nobody passes a stray dog without

Trying to help it find its way home –

Nobody cares where the girl belongs.

A wounded dog’s cries for help

Will be heeded –

Nobody hears the anguish of a girl who doesn’t exist.