The girl with nail polish like stars

The girls drum their fingernails

Lightly

Not like real drumming

More like timid rain.

 

Their nails extend

Two nail lengths past

The end of their nail

Shiny white

Shiny pink

Shiny red if they’re feeling

Different.

 

They tap like timid rain 

On their desks

On their chins

On their travel mugs

Timid

Rain

Pat

Pat

Tap.

 

But the ones I love

Are the ones who come into school

Holding school breakfast

Their nail polish is stars on their nails.

 

It’s five days since the perfect polish turned

To broken pieces

Now they’ve been stars

Since I can remember

And they’re little magenta dots

All over her nails

And she hasn’t taken them off yet

And I love her for her stars.

Popcorn

VT

14 years old

More by Popcorn

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    They said to think about who you are

    And who you want to be

    After camp

    And I thought

    What if I don’t know

    The changes I want to happen to me?


    What if change

    Is best

    Faced like the wind

  • Legacy

    I hope that our legacy is our effort to love, that it is the times we held umbrellas above other peoples heads and shared whatever food we had and pointed out the stars.

  • A Hug of People

    We didn't know the guy 

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    who's that guy? 

    my sister asked, 

    and I wondered if city people 

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