Red lips.
Blue eyes.
Purple streaks
Throughout my hair.
Yellow baby doll tee
Orange polka dot socks
Green pair of panties
On the floor.
I wonder if that is all he sees
In color when he looks at me.
Self Inspired
May As Well
I might as well be mute
And you may as well be deaf
In your right ear,
But those are not the reasons
I never told you any of this.
I just knew to the roots of my teeth
And the skin of my tongue
That you wouldn’t hear me.
Mommy
Cartoons on the TV for hours.
Barbies after that.
Mommy, braid my hair.
Lessons not yet learned,
Too much eye-shadow.
Mommy, I can braid my own hair.
Forty hour work weeks,
Dishes, laundry, and bills.
Mommy, braid my hair?
Years gone.
Goodbye.
Mommy, I will braid your hair.
I’m Breaking Up With You Because…
I hate
myself
when I’m
around you
more than
I love
us.
Choke
I train my dreams on a retractable leash
Running free yard after yard.
Until one inch too far they choke,
gasping on the thin air of absolute reality
642 Poems and More 