"lost"

by Jennifer, age 17, from US

puncturing wounds
saying goodbye
to a black landscape
"i never learned anything here anyway"
forgotten the best friends
the cliches
the new underwear that matched her socks
how her mother forbid toe rings
and an 11 o' clock curfew
is she ready for the rest of it?
the glorious pictures that even movies cant follow
since she is going beyond the simple seventeen years of
stuffed animals and pillow fights
since her kisses
and sweet goodbyes
of fairytales and fishes who sang lullabies
oh what a girl this little seductress used to be
before the red lipstick stained her teeth
before the smoke swirled into silver knots upon her head
before the end arrived just as the beginning had died
before the TV turned on
and innocence was lost