We Wanted

by B. Lynne Zika


We wanted beauty,
gowns with laced bodices
and gossamer wings.
We wanted to marry our uncles
and ride sidesaddle
on the backs of their mean machines,
our arms cradling black leather
and our hair a gold banner
flying in the wind.
We wanted to look like Doris Day,
Kim Novak, the photographs of our mothers
as homecoming queen.
We wanted to collect
a gazillion Lay's potato chip bags
and win the two-wheeler Schwinn
at the Saturday matinee
and practice religious ecstasies
in the dim glow of wooded dusk
where grownups never came.
We wanted lightning bugs
splayed across summer coverlets
and unending stardom.
We wanted boobs.
We wanted to tell our men
to hang up their six-shooters
and sit down to supper,
and we wanted, just once,
to find under the Christmas tree
a BB gun for girls.
We wanted cloaks of invisibility
so that only the true-hearted could see us
and, knowing that in our fragility
lay the earth's truest strength,
hold us
the way all sacred things are held.


* * * * *

B. Lynne Zika’s photography, nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in numerous literary and consumer publications. 2022 publications include Delta Poetry Review, Backchannels, Poesy, Suburban Witchcraft, and The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. In addition to editing poetry and nonfiction, she worked as a closed-captioning editor for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. Awards include: Pacificus Foundation Literary Award in short fiction, Little Sister Award and Moon Prize in poetry, and Viewbug 2020 and 2021Top Creator Awards in photography. Website: https://artsawry.com/.