A separation of genitalia.
That’s what puberty is.
Boys in the sanctuary.
Girls in the office.

The bag was pink,
the fabric scratchy
The weight of the rocks
Stretching my joints.

I gave my rocks away
Like blowing kisses to my friends.
Each giggle a tickle in my throat.

A kiss
A gasp
A shudder

“An empty bag has no value” they said.

And what is woman
If not a bag full of rocks,
Waiting to be emptied.

In purity culture, the image of a bag of rocks comes directly from my own bodily archive. I remember being handed a small bag of rocks in a Bible study and being told to give them away to my friends, each rock representing something of value. The lesson was clear: each time I gave away a rock, it was like giving away part of myself. At the end of the exercise, the Bible teacher told us that an empty bag has no value. The metaphor was intended to explain how sexual experiences, like giving away rocks, leave you empty and without worth. This image, rooted in the teachings of purity culture, reinforced the idea that the body is not only something to be guarded, but that once parts of it are “given away,” it becomes empty and devalued. The physical and emotional weight of this teaching left an indelible mark on my embodied experience, shaping how I understood my own worth and how I moved through the world.