Poem: ““you realize adults know nothing about girls when they ask you extra dumb questions”

By Jacklyn Janeksela

 

just as i swallowed a spoonful of peanut butter or right when

i swallow a spoonful of peanut butter    she asks me

what do you want to be

when you grow up        but she doesn’t know i’m already grown

just because i cannot manage money or drive a car         doesn’t mean

i don’t see how this life thing works      and just because i don’t

have all the        vocabulary with which to express

myself              i have enough and it does me just fine

thank you

so while you think i’m still a     little girl           because i don’t know

what sex is        or what married is         i can tell you a thing or two

about broken hearts and masturbation    this little body carries

a brain and a heart that light up              the mother fucking world

and no, i might not do big things                      like society’s idea of big

get seen on television or read in the magazines status

imma do big things for me        and for my community

imma make art like i wanna       and think like i wanna   and

pray and worship and eat and love and fuck and write

like i wanna

but of course    i don’t say all that         because

by the time i get the peanut butter down                      she’s

already left the room

 

_______________________________________________

jacklyn janeksela can be found @ felled limbs, Oddball Magazine, The Nervous Breakdown, Berfrois, Barrelhouse, Uut Poetry, Pig Latin, Thought Catalog, Luna Magazine, & Talking Book. forthcoming in WhiskeyPaper, Reality Hands, & DumDum Magazine. she is in a post-punk band called the velblouds. her baby @ femalefilet. more art @ artmugre & a clip.