Chlorine Cl, 17

1977
One piece bathing suit
made of heavy double knit
with a modesty skirt that clings to my thighs
and darts for chests
girls at my school don’t seem to have
each size a different color
baby blue for size 4
then red, navy, pink, Kelly green, magenta &
orange for size 16
The boys are lined up against the tile wall
as we are escorted past, to the deep end.
A sad anthropological study gone wrong.
We are not exotic birds, we have no colorful plumes
Just hormones and oil spills
bloody nicks on our legs
hair that refuses to feather.
I am a girl who shows no signs
of maturing, my body, like my hair
is straight lines. No curves, no turns
no place to get lost.

Elemental, poems written to the Periodic table

Elemental, by Julia Klatt Singer, is a set of poems written to the Periodic table. They are poems based on the nature and properties of the elements, and how they become a part of our lives, both lived and imagined. Like the Periodic table itself, they are about relationships, and what is triggered in the nearness of one another. Price includes shipping and handling

$10.00