Monday, February 20, 2006

Everything that came after

The terrible beauty
you became
enslaved dozens
in its time
and certainly
I was a reluctant
walk-on role
in your constant drama
but I only understood
everything that came after
when I belatedly found
that it had grown
from an enraged vow
of a gangly outcast
12-year-old
shielding herself behind
arms crossed tight over
a book beyond her years
pressed to her narrow hunched chest
to ward off taunts and jeers
as you tried not
to let your tormenters
see you cry
out of a distant teacher's sight
in the furthest pariah corner
of that wire meshed
prairie schoolyard.

After you
like a latter day
duckling
grew beautiful
became famous
on the runways of Paris
accomplished
everything
you swore you would
everything
that a twelve-year-old
could possibly dream
to turn spurn and ridicule
back at jeering faces
you couldn't imagine
what came next
couldn't work beyond
that child still lost
in an ugly wire meshed moment
and the world moved
uncaring again around you.

3 comments:

ether said...

A good, gritty, poem.
Did you know her personally?

coyote said...

Yes I did, Fingers. Quite the person, but I don't think any of us want to know too many people like that.... it takes a lot of energy.

David Scrimshaw said...

I bet it would take a lot of energy.