by Kayelina Publico
Oh, ode to the girls I was friends with in high school
The ones with Jack Roger toes and dirty blonde lacrosse curls
300 Instagram likes a pop with inside joke comments from their Lilly Pulitzer lunches
Oh, ode to the girls I hung out with in high school
The ones with shredded Toms and chipping burgundy nails
Aesthetic photos straight to Tumblr with lowercase comments of a poem we wrote but were too scared to claim
Oh, ode to the girls I loved in high school
The ones with sunflowers on their breasts and Shakespeare quotes on their dress
The ones that perfected crying onstage to an audience, where family barely bothered to show up
Sex in the prop room, write our name on the bathroom stalls, tell the world we’re infinite as we stomp to the beat of our own Mayday Parade
Oh, ode to the girls who lost themselves to the boys in high school
The ones that refused to waffle our grasping pancaked hands while our stomachs bit their teeth on toilet seats just asking for a true love’s kiss
Girls with fairytales on their tongues, convincing themselves they didn’t take up space when in reality they took wide right turns
Oh, ode to the girls in high school who chose theater over reality
The ones that needed laughter and music
More than theorems and biology
The ones who won’t get scholarships cause all they did was memorize lines while SATs just took up their time
Oh, ode to the girls that thrifted before it was cool and couldn’t drive until 18
In high school books and movies they called us wallflowers but life mistook us for wackos
That got dress coded on a daily cause all our knife-cut legs could wear in June were leggings
Oh, ode to the girls in high school that smoked weed and cried and bleed like nobody’s business
Oh ode to the girls I surrounded myself in high school with
Oh ode to the girls who were just girls but tried so hard to be women
Oh ode to girls I was friends with in high school
I loved you
But you ain’t finished yet
Blue Granite Review 