I refuse to frighten you, I am
a good girl, a good servant
of life. But I'm human,
I can be impulsive and it's this
I fight, I bite; the 14 year old

takes pictures of her tears,
saving it in a folder marked
"Bad Night With Crow in Mouth"
wishing she could climb outside
under the yew tree and attain
Plathian enlightenment.

I can be lovely, Mister M,
I can love like no one's ever felt;
I devote. I like to watch

children in coffee shops, whipped cream
hugging their upper lip and I wonder
when I will name my Madeline Rae;
she will belong to an Us I've not met yet.
But I will feel whole; the 28 year old

has a folder of smiles –
this darkness is not ever-present. I do not
live in a slaughterhouse. I do not tear
meat from the bone –
I am a lovely,
just someone who sometimes gazes
at mother moon too long.

01/19/2007

Posted on 01/19/2007
Copyright © 2026 Lisa Marie Brodsky