What Little Girls Are Made Of

by Christine Elizabeth Ray

she had always been puzzled

by the idea that little girls

were made of sugar

and spice

and everything nice

in her experience

that’s not what

little girls

were made of at all

the mean girls smelled

like cruelty mixed with uncertainty

disdain peppered with insecurity

ravenous hunger and envy

some girls smelled like

saccharine sweetness

and copper wire

wound too tight

always trying to please

to be liked

to be popular

others just wanted

to fly under the radar

to escape the notice

of mean girls who torment

of chameleon girls who offered

friendship only to shun them

the moment the mean girls

or a boy

beckoned

she was a different

kind of girl

the quiet, watchful kind

she had ageless wisdom

in her heart

steel in her spine

fire in her blood

and patience

her time would come

there weren’t many

girls like her

but when they brushed

past each other

in school hallways

or crowded streets

the recognition

was like lightning

eyes would meet boldly

and they would smile

the secret smiles

of their kind

* * * * *

© 2017 Christine Elizabeth Ray – All Rights Reserved

Christine Elizabeth Ray is an indie author and freelance editor who lives outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is the creator of the blog Brave and Reckless and Managing Editor of The Sudden Denouement Literary Collective (Blood Into Ink, Sudden Denouement, Sudden Denouement Publishing, & Whisper and the Roar) as well as Indie Blu(e).  Her writing has been featured on SpillWords, fēlan poetry & visual zine, Nicholas Gagnier’s Swear to Me (2017), and his upcoming collection, All the Lonely People. Christine’s first book of poetry, Composition of a Woman, was published by Sudden Denouement Publishing in July of 2018. Her second book of poetry, The Myths of Girlhood, is scheduled for release later this year.