Orphan, Unharvested

Like fresh produce,

We are washed, plucked, shined

Sat on display awaiting the next buyer,

Teeth shining in the intense fluorescent light.

Like white cores of lettuce,

We’re disregarded, deemed unfit

Yet, in pretty little rows,

we wait and wait,

Like zoo animals disappearing from sight, wanting to be seen.

One by one we are chosen,

Some black, some white, some brown

And taken home.

Our belongings crumpled in opaque plastic garbage bags

Tossed over our shoulder as our next journey awaits.

As the cool draft courses through the gravel columns

Imprisoned in the twelve-by-nineteen feet dorm,

I cut my eye at a blond white girl

Tossing her doll into the air.

The doll somersaults twice, landing in the girl’s arms

With the grace of a gymnast.

The adults applaud her

I envy her, I pity her.

She leaves the next day.

I listen for the footsteps of potential parents

as the moon and sun chase each other out of the sky

Repeatedly, like children in an elementary game of tag.

I wait and wait and wait

My breasts erupts

My waist shrinks

I begin to curve in all the right places

Hair sprouting like inky wilted arugula

In all the wrong ones

More kids come and go

Shined again

Reprogrammed as desired

Awaiting one’s glance

To decide they’re worthy

I wait and wait and wait and wait

My feet grind imprints in the concrete floor

The carving of my name deep in the wall next to my oblate pillow

My hope shrivels like a flower’s bud in the moonlight.

And suddenly, I’m blowing the flames of 18 candles.

I’m released from my cage

An heirloom vegetable, polished to perfection

Yet neglected, dried up and stuck.