for katherine
she could stab her car key
into the bottom of any beer can
finish it in a time that
made older guys want to bring her home
she knows how to win every
card game in the book
her name is smeared on
pong and die tables all over the state
she could hold her liquor
in a way that
secretly every father
hoped their daughter could
but nobody notices that
around the hour of 3A.M
as she greedily pours out
whatever substance is left in the fridge
of the passed out, yet
carefree individual who
is probably just as
confused as she is,
down the kitchen sink
and casually walks out the
front door
--
before she left for this
place
someone told her
you should always have
another person with you
no matter where you go
she quickly realized
being alone is so safe,
it's dangerous
she liked that
she spent most of her time
alone
she never once coughed
after taking rips off the cheap bongs
of boys who's mothers
would cry if they were to find one under their bed back at home
she could roll joints
tighter and fatter then every drop out she knew
better then any frat boy
who tried to engage her in depthless conversations
she could taste the finest
herb simply by looking at it
she could touch the grains
of rock in a line and know exactly where they came from
she could not understand,
however, how she became bored
not the type of bored your
DARE program warns you about
with hospital visits and
lamaze classes, but,
the type of bored that
arises in the morning of an april vacation day
when a little girl gazes
past the pain of glass in her bedroom window
only to discover a wash of
rain
and the little girl, the
little girl wants so badly
so badly to dive right
out, right out of her window
into the eye of the storm,
into the pools that have formed under the gutters
her mother tells her she
will catch a cold
little girls with freshly
ironed spring dresses should not be playing in puddles
the little girl loves her
mother
she does not rebel
she simply sits and
wonders
what the rain would feel
like
on her elbows and the back
of her neck
as she ponders all the
magnificent adventures she cold endure inside
she knows she will feel it
someday
someday soon
not just against her
elbows or the back of her neck
but her whole being
she stopped going to
parties
she began scribbling in
atlas's
