In the Garden of Girlhood

I was a child for a minute

born playing house under summer sun

heartbeats steeped in

gardenia & lavender blood.

I tested my mortality at the playground

& broke an elbow. He tested

my childhood my thighs and won.

fairytales new moon eclipsed by

summered fools

gold: Too late to write

a love song the bite and the burn

of black cherry ice pops already stained

to my pink lips. Blood clots, Broken

bones heal against steel

August knows I've been touched by the ghost

hungry for apple and pomegranate.

If I am Eve, that boy is the fallen star.

forgive my sweet tooth. I couldn't resist his

fig-filled wing-shaped

feather light wound. Traded my soul for

a drink of nectar in the heat of the desert, where surviving

girlhood looks a lot like war.

*for the best experience reading this poem in its intended form, please read on a desktop computer.