he asked her
why did she sound so low
and she laughed
‘existential angst’ she said
nineteen years old
with deep feelings
of empathy and rage
for the world
not your typical teenager
but one who walks
the earth naked
soaking in all
its glory and grime
red toe nails
and red drops
oozing out of slit wrists
an idealistic worldview
‘the idealism that inspires
a carefree free free world’
it’s either this or that
no shades
of grey in between
her poetry
is her protest
at once dark
and enervating
at once uplifting
helps her to stay
a step behind the edge
her writing
is her see-saw
of pain and healing
her sculpture
is a cry for freedom
‘freedom we dream of’
she
with her scrapbook
her Morrison and Cobain
her café red bricks
her innocence
and brooding intensity
aurora of the future
( 26 September 2003 )
