good girls don't scream
Allison Thorpe

I wanted to be like Janis
Or Grace on a good day
Toss my hair around
Wear thin rainbow tops
With no bra
Not because I didn’t need one
But because I was cool
Wanted to have some
Brown-eyed guitar player
Lust my sway and step
Dance with the beat
Of a bare-chested drummer
Wanted to stomp a stage
And wail a note well into tomorrow

But there was enough
Drama at home
So I was just a girl
Who stayed in on weekends
Who did all her homework
Who wrote in a diary
And dreamed about Fabian

corrine does county fair

We waited all year
For the summer event
Ferris wheel
Funnel cakes
Tractor pull

Corrine waited all year
For the carnie boys
Hand rolled cigarettes
Long hair
Grease spotted jeans

We didn’t mind
Her smile got us
Extra time on the rides
                                
Her tight t-shirts adding years
To her growing body
Got her extra time
Behind the booths

Gaily we carried home goldfish
And little stuffed dice
                                
Corrine walked silently
The wisp of a blue ribbon
Reflected in her eyes

About the author:
Allison Thorpe is the author of Thoughts While Swinging a Wild Child in a Green Mesh Hammock and Swooning and Other Fun Art Forms.  Widely published, she still longs to be an international poker player.  In the meantime, she writes poetry in a stone house in the backwoods of Kentucky.