In this life, different versions of me
have peered out a multitude of windows. Viewing views that were direct reflections
Of me being exactly where I was supposed to be.

One version of me, a lifetime ago,
Peered down a road lined with house after house.
Yards pristinely manicured, cookie cutter clones. Judgement peered back at me on those roads, Where the HOA railroaded us with codes. My garden grew wild. They said,
“Cut that shit down, or get outta our town”





Off to college I soon hauled ass,

not old enough to vote or buy a pack of smokes.

Fifteen floors up, I checked out my view

Fraternity and sorority dolls galore.

I remembered them, I went to school with her and him and oh that girl too. The mean girls walked those college streets. Smiles drawn on with phony lipstick. I knew their game, phony and sugary sweet. These girls were out to win no matter the cost. To win over those frat boys with rich daddy’s. Those boys who dropped, clinkity clinks In girls drinks. Young girls who couldn’t yet vote much less buy a pack of smokes. Clinkity clink, gulp gulp it’s time to party. Then blankity blank, waking up in a scary place. Scrambling, trying to find the moments that led to this morning walk of shame. Clothes scattered and torn, gulp gulp then blackness…

Those mean girls could have those boys.

Happy to forfeit that win, trophy wife was not to be my life. The prettiest dogwoods I’ve ever seen lined the streets where those men took whatever they wanted, never caring the human cost. Everyone moaned and groaned when they cut those dogwoods down. The seventeen year old me, sighed a sigh of relief. Those pretty dogwoods masked a dirty street, disguised it a beautiful it could never be.

Up in the mountains there was a street I would meet....