I know my brain is a gift
It’s just that my words
sometimes take 5-7 business days to ship.
The quiet of my eyes isn’t blankness,
it’s processing. Because behind them it’s real
f***ing busy. See, my mind is a sweatshop
of thoughts, where inside
there’s a poor single mother
working her fingers to the bone
just trying to make it home
in time to feed her children.
trying to make it home
in time to smell
the top of her baby’s head
to make it all worth it. To say
all this worry, is for you, my love.
I say that to myself in the mirror
every night before I go to bed.
So, when your doorstep keeps coming
up empty, don’t try to track my words
know my good intentions are out for delivery.
And when I wrap myself in shiny
paper and crawl under your tree
know it wasn’t easy.
but by all means:
………………………..tear
……………………………..into
…………………………………..me.
Mi-Mi Monahan is a preschool teacher and poet from Los Angeles, CA. Her work reflects her perspective as a queer, femme, and sober young adult making sense of the world through metaphor.