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Amelia Jo Anne Jun 2013
XI
hanging from a peg on my wall
the shadow of a cross
featuring the shadow of a man
who was never there for me after all.
Amelia Jo Anne Jun 2013
I'm dying everyday
drowning with each
pinched breath I take
sinking below myself
caverns & deep sea canyons
open up
offer themselves
as I'm acquainted with
corals & anemones
new friends of me
accepting this shipwrecked soul
just passing through
before settling
wherever my bottom is
every rock I meet
finds me tumbling
spilling out over
heavy enough
that my wreckage
pulls me deeper
leagues farther underneath
finding contact but not finding an end
Amelia Jo Anne Jun 2013
IX
I used to scream & scream
so angry I found I couldn't stop
crying hyperventilating
maybe to make her worried
maybe to make her notice me
maybe to prove I was crazier than her

I made her cry
   made her go in the basement where the ***** coolers -- blueberry smirnoff, your favorite -- were waiting
   made her silent streaming tears come out & her coffee refilling again + again & her cigarette package needing to be replaced; the basement a hazy cave my mother sat in, silent + unresponsive, smoking constantly crying often rocking back+forth occasionally for four days

                                                                             I win.
Amelia Jo Anne Jun 2013
I don't remember why I'm ****** up
but my dad told a story
about me once
(my mother failed to report this in my baby book
another disappointment; hardly a surprise)
I was five
didn't want to be Rapunzel anymore
didn't like being trapped in someone else's castle
I cut my long locks off
not waiting for my prince to save me
(ha!)
took the hair to dad
"Bug, what did you do?" he asked
Little girl, so relieved because
"Now I'm not pretty anymore"

dad said I was
a different girl
after that
easily angered
agitated
upset
                        I forgot how to smile
Amelia Jo Anne Jun 2013
VII
mom I'm your baby girl & you didn't protect me you trusted too much you loved too fiercely & too many degrees close to stockholm syndrome to notice me. I'm your baby girl & I don't know what's going on why I feel this way why I need to touch myself all the time I feel so *****+used+sinful+guilty+unwanted+ashamed but I need it I can't stop. I don't know why I hate people that smile at me, talk with exaggerated chipper voices (it's creepy). I don't know why they always have their hands on me, lingering touches on my head shoulders hair arms whispering in my ears hugging me {i don't know you or like you i'm scared of you get your hands off me everything makes me frustrated + angry + i don't ******* understand anything mum} Wicked Witch of the West you cry & cry all day tell me I'm stupid. You & dad repeat over & over a prayer you always recite when I act up "What in the hell ails you, child?!" you two think I'm flawed, all through & that you can spank & discipline my problems away.
did it work?
Amelia Jo Anne Jun 2013
VI
he is well aware others don't approve
& he only hides it because of this
it certainly doesn't affect him
I've seen
in the empty, greedy eyes
the proud look
of what his old plaything
grew up
  --oh, did she ever grow up--
to be
checking me out
when he thinks
I can't see
& sometimes
when he knows
I can.
Amelia Jo Anne Jun 2013
V
we were two little girls
whose mothers were both
housewives stuck with multiple children,
bored,
& belonging to a circle
of similarly conditioned women
who liked to sunbathe & smoke & talk
  in the summer
who liked to drink coffee & smoke & talk
  while the other seasons floated past the windows
their kids off somewhere else
hopefully playing & hopefully getting along, too.

we were two little girls
having a sleepover
eating popcorn & watching movies
two hours prior
in my parent's bed
  we were laughing
  carrying on like children do
  duh
she touched where my ******* weren't
told me to take off my clothes
& dance
explored
my little girl body
with her little girl fingers eyes tongue
playing the game
someone else taught her
except this time
she held the cards
she rolled the dice
on her new gameboard.

we showered together
on the uncomfortable
morning after
she reached for me
I stood
transfixed & unsure
watching
submissive, scared, oddly curious.
In hindsight,
I guess I must have liked it a little bit
'cuz I didn't back down. Didn't flinch away.
At least I was chosen. For once. For something.
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