GROWN-UP

Poem by Mariah Lynne Dear

My heart hurts a lot.

Green wax in a toilet bowl

set to simmer over Christmas.

When all the clouds are pink

which cities get to be sad?

Trees spit up pastel rainwater

My body can’t handle all these lullabies

Some grown-ups still have sleepovers

Yellow cheeks in between the oil spill

Two rose-eyed women in their flower sky and city

leapfrogging all the mess

I got grown-up wrong.

Pissed in a garbage can

Pickle-juiced myself to vomit

Was little spooned into the wall beside the bed

Apparently some people don’t own rain boots

They are so sure

I would paint the hurt into a ladybug and forget double beds