Advanced apologies to all Taylor Swift fans for this misleading title. This is not about Taylor Swift’s 2012 album. This is about the poppies in bloom and my period (which arrived late) and the moon (which arrived right on time). While I’m writing a lot about parenthood lately, I’m very much not trying to get pregnant these days. When my period didn’t arrive one, two, then three weeks after I expected, the anxieties started burbling up. I’m on birth control, so technically it’s not even a “real period” that I was awaiting, but they feel real when the cramps and back pains hit.
The arrival of this monthly flow is predictable down to the day. But this time around, things didn’t start flowing until six weeks after expected. When it arrived, it hit full force. That afternoon my neighbor approached me in the parking lot and asked with zero context: “Did you start your period today?”
When I affirmed she said, “That means you’re a red witch.”
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