Girl from New Liskeard

Standing on a crumbling, concrete step

Reeking of new found independence 

Flowered spandex

Clings like a new tattoo

Once white high tops 

Tongues flapping, unlaced

A belly that's not quite covered

Freed from the mother 

Who knows crop top rules by heart

She strikes a pose

Watching the traffic slow

Passers by trying not to stare

As she struggles to light her cigarette

Against the wind

That blows up last seasons long dead leaves

Against the curb

She won't inhale the smoke

Still, this insisted upon ritual screams

"I'm an adult now"

Believing this,

Naive to all the lessons she has yet to learn

She will stand there

Suck...spit...suck...spit

Until even from across the street

You can smell the filter burning

She tosses the butt to the concrete

Sudden death

At the weight of a white, leather high top

Ground and drowned

In a puddle of drool.

Natasha Head