Quilt Poem: Teenage Kicks

after Gwendolyn Brooks and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

we make ourselves dizzy on fumes & fruit cocktails think of plants
how they are visible to each other take pics of the best looks for the record
if there are flowers, flowers the flounce on a hem

we try everything on each body has its pose a dress that almost resembles a vine

pointy boot or platform shoe our arena of possibilities: the mall
between some image a blur

stretch turtleneck or ruched skirt the brave stockings in hell a radio playing our songs

we shrink into school, then expand: formal chrysanthemum
our hair as big as a neon sign

we anticipate a message (actually talking, on the phone) secret spill
how our jokes line up in permanent rotation the made up games
our treasury of gestures all the sparklings

we have everything but control like trees, we adhere to silence
then out the door skating at night on empty streets our looping paths
the rhinestone traces left behind we who were