Day 9 - One Poem a Day

Poem #9 - Sick board / Absent

I am thinking about the old dusty chalkboard at the corner of our classroom

We used to write our name on it

To let the teacher know when one of us was having a sick day

I am thinking about the time we lied to them to escape the math class

Whatever the reason is we've always got each other's back

10 years later,

You are 23-and-a-half,

Bright auburn henna cover your arms and legs

The time they turn dry

Flaking over your beautiful Sumatran ivory skin

I have just woken up in the arm's of my only lover--the city I live in

10 years later,

I am turning 24 in less than a month

Balinese ink running on the length of my spine

I have bleached hair ends and I let my shoulder-long black and azure lock uncovered

10 years later,

I am still thinking about us

The pristine friendship that stretches like a rubber band

But the definition of 

Modesty

and who's good and who's bad

stay

I am flying out today

Arriving like a sore thumb 

to your banquet

A lifetime celebration of a good girl

Where the elders will frown upon a single young lady, 

A 25-year-old who does not seem to grow up correctly

Dressed in tattoo they cannot read and understand

I think I will need the chalkboard back

To write my name over it

To tell them that I am feeling a little sick

and you will be glaring at them from where you are standing

a Sumatran tigress in cat eyes and glorious golden dress

Ready to pounce