For my advanced poetry class, we’re taking one poem and revising it seven times over the course of a week. Here is the draft I’m starting out with, I’ll also post the final revision. If you have thoughts, suggestions, questions or praises feel free to leave them.

I Am the Girl

sprinting
across blacktop
my brother’s yesterday
clothes hanging loosely around
bones that
jet sharply.

I am white skin
a lie that seeps
happiness, fortune, free, easy.
I am the lie to forgotten youth,
rejections from the “rich”
school  because poverty only              (socio economic bullshit)
gives birth to unwed bastards.

I am the quiet,
tucked under the bed
awash in a dull flashlight
only companioned with books.

I am the one escapee.
I am the upgrade.
I am the graduate
from the neighborhood,
from the family.

I am a concoction
of Baptist praise and rosary beads,
in the name of the Father, Son and Holy

I am the Spirit.