Simone

Simone I’ve yet to see her cry Or wipe a tear from her eye Though I’ve seen her dry sweat off her brows And that fan ain’t nothing She’s going on sixty-five Burgundy lipstick stained teeth Her kiss perched on my cheek And dark hairs atop her lip Like mine I wish to erase Now her eyes are droopy And flaming red Grieving her husband’s death She’s carried loads of laundry on her head And had company on her bed Her two daughters, Are what she has left She is a social butterfly And makes us lick our spoons She is everything to everyone To me she gave eyes To the sleepless city Sparkly ,glittery ,gold To me she gave Shimmering stars and moons wrapped around my wrist Variant in color, size and shape In a rural Haitian village Was I bred and raised Mango and avocado weighed heavily upon the earth It’s nectarous substance Oozed onto the ground rotting, attracting flies Now mere bare hands And desert land Bracelets too pretty to wear On my bare wrist Small like my maternal mother’s She’s slowly deteriorating Her small stature Matches mine perfectly Though her protruding bones And sagging skin Are evident that she’s yearning for home Can’t wear that print dress without getting a few stares Like who am I to wear designer Womanly I look Feminine I feel As aunt Simone says I must strive to do Without shame or insecurity Because her niece is under thirty And is no grandma to be But I insist on wearing a black , mesh floral lace camisole to hide my cleavage and a-cup breasts She is a doll And pampers herself as much as she can afford She’s never called me beautiful But has mentioned that I have no reason to not want to live Even if I was ugly as my fellow classmates have said Tough love she gives But I’m gentle, delicate Makeup masks my short comings But I glam up on occasion Determined to not overdo it And look like a little girl Playing in her mother’s cosmetics Marckincia Jean Free verse 05/13/20