Chlorine Sky

by Mahogany L. Browne

when Curtis say the things I’ve already said about myself & she laugh I know deep down inside she ain’t never care about me at all.

now I know she just said them lies to keep my shadow all up & around her sunshine smile

I put a T-shirt on top & try to hide where I come from the kind of folks that park on the lawn & clean they car with the Gap Band blasting out the door speakers I put a T-shirt on top & hope no one asks where my dad works. Where my dad is? Why my sister, Essa, & I always fight on the lawn? I just want to swim in the teal green sorta blue bubble & forget all the things that make me different for a little while.

He says every child deserve to be the sun To know they come from the sun & if the sun snuff itself to dusk before its time & no shine is left to see Let it be

When you live where we live You say what it is & if you can’t say what it is Or if it hurt too much Or maybe it’s too confusing You just say “whatever.” That way you ain’t no lie

Like static on the TV Like the sound my mama made that time I asked “Where is daddy?” Or like the sound my mama made the time I asked “What is prison?” I know what silent sounds like

This is how I learn to play not as big cause nobody got time for a girl outshining them.

I don’t want my name attached to a beatdown Or a rumor But laws of the school say I got at least one (if not both) coming to me.

It’s hard being friends with people When you are still figuring out who you are

A friend is someone seeing you & hearing you without you having to say everything Every time

Everybody wants to be a hero, but most of us are just misunderstood villains.

But people only care about winning They don’t care who they take from They don’t care about how foul they be