It's barely ten 'o-clock and my emotions have evaporated
into the dry classroom air

I hear you smacking the pink gum around in your mouth,
and I envy you for such strength I will never possess

You speak to me with such worldly poise,
about the new story you wrote that has worried your parents again

When I see you,
I don't see the girl you see,

floating false pounds over the scale
because she'll never be enough

for an athletic mother
But I see a girl of accomplished dreams

My eyes swim through each line of prose;
my stomach clenching with fear for the girl
whose Daddy touches her at night
when he's too drunk to 'give-a-hoot'
and whose friends call her their favorite little whore,
only because she's the only girl they know
who lost her innocence at six-years old

and when I finish, the moment is captured and it's too late
to collect the sullen tears that beg to shower my face

You tell me you're sorry,
as I confess my daily feelings
but I know, you don't know what to say
I can't hear anything besides

the echo of my heart

as it speeds up in rhythm
My adrenaline released a mental camera that day,
etching the memory forever into my porous mind

and now everything I touch turns into a waterfall