The word “gyal” was an insult in Rasta vernacular and was never used for a girl or woman who was loved and respected. Calling someone a “gyal” was a marker of her unworthiness, used with the intent to hurt and belittle. When he called me “gyal” in the froth of his anger, the insult was my fledgling womanhood. My looming impurity. For weeks I felt that word like a knife between my legs. Gyal. A dirty word. Pinning me to that moment.
