World gurning championship
can an ugly child do equations?
in middle school i was round
and dark as a punctuation mark.
they wouldn’t let me be
other things: nobody listened. was it worse
than suddenly being mexican? igualmente,
nigger. what is the arabic word for struggle?
because some people are just born
unsettled and i have dreamed
of train tracks folding me worthless
as a penny against the dive of sky.
you do not get to judge my salt water
taffy when i do not say myself. my tongue
is riveted to a tree like the pink
of a catfish being curled from its skin.
when i think of suicide
bombs i focus on the smile of the brown
finger against the finally red.