Joanna
I never knew your last name
Benjamin wanted you more
than he ever wanted me
for your madeline face and framing water fall
of black hair
Joanna
as thin as if you only ate thought
your knees could not hold together you
came apart like a dearticulate doll
everyone felt so sorry for your ragged sorrow
though no one knew why
looking perpetually like you would cry
a Picasso blue girl of faraway gaze
Joanna
if I had not envied you the heart of a boy
who had bewitched my own, or felt your ability
to balance upside down on monkey bars
making you superior in the rules of horse chestnuts and marbles
I may have seen the threadbare grief in your eyes
how from the hollows came the cry
it is apparent now in a way a child refuses
blowing her rage with swollen cheeks
as if temper lost her place in a world of shut doors
why wasn’t I kinder to you?
why did I try to compete when all you wanted
was respite from the terror of being
Joanna