summer babies drowning in american sea

i'm a firecracker child / holding them inches from my face / let the sparks burn my nose and remind me that all good things come at a price / let the embers slip beneath my fingernails and kindle a fight that i didn't know was there / and god forbid i smell like gunpowder / i'm a burial child / mourning my fallen siblings who caught bullets to the heart and soul / i kiss the coffins before they sink into the ground / in memoriam is inked between my temples / i'm a swimming pool child / open your eyes and ignore the chlorine sting / we're drowning out here / can't someone toss us a rope? /

i'm a watermelon girl / i devour the pink flesh and spit seeds onto my napkin / spit out some, swallow others / isn't that how it works these days? / if i were a seed, would i be lurching down someone's digestive tract? / or would i rejoice with my privileged comrades? / i'm a hair chalk girl / i watch my sister struggle to get the red to show up in her dark locks / blue smears on my fingers but barely tints my pigtails / i'm a parade girl / i watch in envy as other hair chalk girls wave their flags and show off their bikes, the spokes twirling with patriotic rhythm / her corn-silk hair is streaked perfectly with blue and red / i finger my brown hair and sigh / why even bother? /

i'm a bandana baby / twisting paisley accents my flaws / i'm a flip flop baby / tan lines between my toes / catch at sidewalk cracks / i stumble over my self-doubt / i'm a lemon bar baby / a blueberry suffocating in custard / latch onto the graham cracker crust for dear life / i'm a concert baby / tie dye shirts and open air stages / hold me on a pedestal of judgement / creasing eyebrows tell me that i'll never be good enough / why can't a summer baby breathe? /