Avery Hall Poet Free verse

The Burn Circus

Please don't stare any more
- your eyes make the flesh peel ever faster

To brother, I was "Little Blue Eyes"
To daddy, "Babydoll".
But there was always that strange uncle

"Lost his sanity years back," sighs Mom.
Blame it on war, loneliness, bankruptcy,
Whatever it was, it wasn't okay

He had odd little games to play.
- but I was seven, could I have known?
Some meant touching. Some were painful
And by eight, I didn't want to play anymore

I told someone about games. They took Uncle away.

Only not soon enough

The night before officers came
He had one last game
called Matches and Gasoline.

I was It.

In my sparkling tiara
Ballet slippers and fairy's wand
I wanted to one day be 
someone's Unforgettable

A third grader, eyes
boring into a hospital mirror.
Who unraveled my suit of skin?

In the ballet studio,
a door slammed shut.
The stage lights wouldn't shine
for a candy-cane skinned dancer

Grew up and was
exactly what I wanted
- Unforgettable.

The unforgettable nightmare of young children
The unforgettable modern-day Frankenstein, after
they attempted to pick up my pieces

- I'd rather just FORGET

A one-girl circus freak show
I still dance

           ...but only alone.


Liquid skin, dripping from neck to knees
Not half as painful as
the heat of your stares.

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