Jealousy
Is it too late to start wearing ponchos?
I want to flail arms about,
offer my ringed hands up to the burning world.
I promise not to wear jeggings.
It seems like a good trade.
At six, I had a red & a white poncho.
I had orange Mary Janes that were too tight.
I wore them to the carnival anyway.
You said this was a good idea for a poem
then you read it & said this wasn’t what you expected
while your brow furrowed. I never saw you again.
Years later you published it in a magazine
under your own name. By then I wasn’t writing.
I strode around in silver boots
with kitten heels. I touched the ponchos
in the children’s department. Too small for me.
I bought a t-shirt & a friend printed a poncho on it.
I wasn’t ready for a poncho tattoo.
I wore it to all the poetry readings where I didn’t read.
Everyone talked about your poem.
I said you worked on it for a long time.
© Eleanor Lewis
Eleanor Lewis is a poet and former co-editor of the Baltimore literary magazine, The Pearl. Her chapbook, The Endless Undoing, was published by UnCollected Press in 2024. Her poems have been published in JMWW, The Light Ekphrastic, Maryland Poetry Review, Poet Lore, Quartet, and Shattered Wig Review, among other publications.
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