Popcorn

I'm six on the living room floor -

the pink album the pink album I chant -

dad puts the Supremes on the record player, the jacket handed to me -

pink, with three of the most beautiful women I've ever seen -

When I think of the color green, I think of the trees behind my school. In kindergarten, when kids were cruel and words hurt more than sticks or stones, the trees were there.

Dragon wandered through the forest,

Smiling at his bouquet

Full of bluebells and daisies,

But sighed as he remembered

It was forever incomplete.

My whole life I have been trying to tell a story so beautiful that the world would fall in love with me.

That is why I befriended words and stage lights.

That is why I watch the details of the world

It's summertime in Montana, and because we ranch, because animals and plants and the weather are on their own time, I sit around and wait a lot.

I will not shave my legs

not because I am against it

but because being myself feels like my own act

of rebellion

I will not quiet down

let the world hear my pride and excitement

but I will not shout