Capital

I learned that capital means money, then learned to capitalize my name, as though a person becomes worth more by learning where their letters should stand.

Capital city. Capital punishment. Capital gain.

Strange little family of words, one builds, one takes, one kills.

And somewhere between them, a girl is taught to become capita, to make herself valuable, legible, marketable enough to be mistaken for safe.

So I learned the price of things before I learned their worth.

I learned that interest grows when you leave it alone, that debt is only a promise with teeth, that some people call possession love when the paperwork is written neatly enough.

Now I keep my name lowercase. Not because I am less.

Because I refuse to let a letter become a landlord.