TT: two failed NaPoWriMo Candidates (and one that isn't)

But at least I tried!

What I Did In 5th Grade

Wrote on the periwinkle paper I begged my mom to buy:
passed notes to the boy
I called the r-word + his mangled last name*
but still
confessed with Alanis Morissette lyrics
then used a bathroom pass, an excuse
to run away from his reaction.

Fought in the woods behind the playgrounds,
curse words and branches flying.

Listened to Spice Girls on CD.
classmates corrected my lyric transcripts from the rap station.

Didn't stick up for my future friend, being bullied.

I already knew what a period was.

Sonic the hedgehog was my boyfriend
(Bunnie Rabbot and I were pretty close, though...).

And I got stung, pinched butts, stole a smoke, hated gym,

constantly put things in Lost and Found,

drank too much Coke,

bought Toni Braxton's Secrets when I wasn't supposed to,

was angry when dad banned me from Foxy Brown,

wrote, read, did homework on the way home

and in the woods once we got there.

*in my defense, he did call me "rhino hairs" because we were in fifth grade, who thinks about shaving their legs that young!?

Instead of the News

My alarm is set
to Teebs; classic R-N-B
plays on my commute.

Just Yesterday

in my head
flowers still bloom in a church
and I walk along the last bastion
against gentrification
with lip gloss messy from pizza
and killing time and eating ice cream
before the show