What happens to a girl deferred? After she is molded Does she ever regain her shape? Or melt like an ice sculpture in the sun? Girls deferred don’t always lie back and take what they’re given. But the girls who do, What of them? Mother, grandmothers, great-grandmothers; Centuries of seeingnothearing. Not the daughters too, please. Does the girl deferred remember That when she was little she wanted To be the captain of the team? Or is she content as the pretty face in the pretty clothes in the ugly, ugly crowd? What happens to the girls deferred? Maybe nothing. Maybe they remember. Maybe they forget. Mostly, they forget