i'm so accustomed
to inhaling everyone's smoke rings
i allow their own stresses
to course throughout my veins
i'm broken because my decisions are poor
much like my family
too far below the poverty line
facing eviction
something no
16
13
11
or
8
year old child should have to be afraid of
i let the relationships around me
serve as platform to my self pity
for relationships i could not make work
i sit here
all too aware
of the noxious poisons i inhale
i am forced to fear for my life
and those of my siblings
those of my friends
that of my father
of my mother
simply because
i am the lowercase girl
quietly breathing in everyone's
choke worthy secondhand smoke