• There is a book where the teacher asks
    Write a poem
    Write a poem about your happiest memory
    The students, people living in darkness
    Laugh at this
    Wonder why the teacher thinks they have
    Happy memories

    The poems come out of their shells
    Freedom in one
    Sex in another
    Tenuous memories yet to be made
    Talked about by a third
    Reading this
    I wonder what my ever-loved memory is

    You touched me once
    The only time I felt your presence solidly
    A hand lingered in my hair
    One curl
    One touch
    One look
    For once I was safe
    And with that safety came surety of your love

    There have been others
    Other touches
    Other looks
    Other boys
    None of them lasted
    Neither did you
    But you- you of all of them- felt safe

    I write to you now
    Emails with truth and blood
    Truth of blood
    Your responses flood me with disgust
    You are righteous
    Sure of your own innocence
    And worried for my sanity

    I laugh in your face
    Through my pain
    I tell you not to worry
    Health?
    Well-being?
    Confidence?
    Long gone and almost forgotten

    You've stopped answering
    I'm losing you
    And with you
    I'm losing that hand on my hair
    That touch of a perfect golden curl
    The one time in my ife where I felt perfect

    My hair now is brown and ugly in my eyes
    Not golden
    Curls have become messy and unattractive
    Not perfect
    That's how they were when you loved me
    And that time
    Is over

    One curl
    One touch
    One look
    One moment of a memory
    One breath
    One word
    One you