In honor of Odyssey's fabulous new inclusion of fictional writing, I wanted to share an original poem. I am not a trained poet but nevertheless am excited to share this with you!
"Americani Education"
We cannot forget the secrets,
Hidden from strangers,
Invisible like our fear,
Until the ocean frees the soul,
Knobby, curvy frame.
Thigh dimples, sharp elbows, no razor.
Sagging breasts strut,
Followed by grey speedos.
The Americani cringe
And cannot understand.
Adolescents—bony, brown-freckled—
Do not know the salt erases their pimply masks.
Sea education, see education.
Pregnant mothers turn
Beach balls to the sun—
While cotton ladies lay like folded napkins
Soaking up the white Italian sunlight.
Sure, skin cancer is real,
But it doesn’t matter right now.
Sea education, see education.
We all die in the end.
Skin, sand, and sun wins.
No one cares here.
No one cares except us—Americani.
We lather SPF 50
And snicker—Snapchat—the grey people
With beef jerky skin and Jell-O bellies.
We Americani laugh at the chubby one.
We grasp at carefree, indifferent, Italian,
But we can’t hold on.
We soak in the Mediterranean sun,
But our skin remembers the Gulf of Mexico,
And we can’t change.
This is the view that inspired this poem and the very seat from which it was written.
