Mama
Hugs me
Whispering soft letters
That sing together
And let off a gentle glow
They warm me up
And heal my scars

She builds me a sailboat
And I float
Float
Float
Up into cotton candy clouds

She is my sail
She makes smiles creep onto my face
Floating along
My world of haziness
My boat dancing
In the soft breeze
Which caresses my skin
Her whispers singing
Against it

Then I hear splashing
The waves are now rolling
Higher then I can handle
Their insults weaving their way
In and out

Pebbles are tossed at me
Until they are boulders
And my sail is sinking
And my boat is sinking
And I too, am sinking
Down
Down
Down

And now
I drown
In my sea of tears
The waves
Still thrashing me around
And I sift about
Like sand
Letting them
Drag me

I go
In and out
Of school and insults
In and out
Of my home, and warmth
Their words go
In and out
As they settle in my skin
And bleed out of my eyes
Leaving marking on my face
Until I hold onto
Every word they say.
Til I too am a wave
Washing my brain
Filling it with pain
Sifting around in the abyss of my head
I've sunk

Tripping on star dust
Falling on cotton candy
Drunk on love
That has left me too lonely

I drank too much
And it left me empty
A bottle of tears
They start to appear

Love in a bottle
Filled to the top
Drink if you dare
Die if you must

Heart sinking down
Feelings too heavy
Gone are those good times
Lost is that fun

A flutter in the heart
A grab of that bottle
Those two steps
Put me at the bottom

I look at the stairs
They look at me too
Why did I fall
For the likes of you

Met with a wink
And a sly smile
Her sharp eyes
Hide awhile

In the shrub
She crawls and bounds
Her paws rub
As she glides the grounds

Her red mane
Of hair and dirt
She won’t train
She won’t hurt

She bounds about
In joyous leaps
She leaves about
Every few weeks

Return she may
Or leave and go
It’s every day
I still won’t know

Yet each time
I lose my heart
She comes around
And heals it smart

She’s always there
In dusk or dawn.
She lives in trees
And all beyond

Forever may
She sail the clouds
Yet all the way
She loves me now

She tells me so
And I hear it
I love her so
I won’t forget

That she lives on
Each day and night
Beyond the stars
Within the light

Her spirit is
A strong fox jumping
And when I see her
I run, coming

He drawls on
Picks the same three
All male, unlike me
The girls sit in silence
Watching as he
Does the problem
And another he does the next
But never me

I sit there
raising my hand because
When I call out
it's wrong
But when they call out
it's cool

Then I'm told
To participate more
I raise my hand most of the time
I'm called on least of the time

Sexism starts young
When boys expect all the attention
and girls know they will be unheard