she wore daisies,
woven into a Crown,
in her hair.
her bones were thin, like the
pages of the Bible,
but her heart was strong.
her winged shoulder blades and
sharp elbows were batons.
she said the color gray smelled
deeply of The New York Times
and fish.
she said that power and beauty were
distributed
equally
like communism.

eventually her lips parted
to reveal
the gleam of a white
Lie,
mistaken for her teeth.
her words then made an incision
in my chest and stole
whatever remained inside.
that Esmeralda was in such a daze for so long
that one day,
she was
forgotten.