Prepubescent, and: To the Autumn
- Prepubescent, and: To the Autumn
Prepubescent
I asked my sister what made me a girl,since under my dress caused me confusion.She said, “Hidden by your thighs your clam holds a pearl.”I asked my sister what made me a girl;She sang a song while brushing my curls with oil,singing that bleeding was a sensation I’d get used to.I asked my sister what made me a girl,since under my dress caused me confusion.
To the Autumn
in the projects where we played outour hazardous infatuation like stage acts.As we met under bare trees with school bagshanging leisurely off our shoulders, you poutedover the time out you got at recess. I remarkedyou were too old to pout and you pulled me inwhispering of pleasures we had sparkedup in the dark of backyard slabs whose weedssprouted through cracks and how we weretoo young to indulge in it; then you planteda kiss to my temple. [End Page 49]
Kayla Reado is a seventeen year old high school student at the New Orleans School for Creative Arts, where her discipline is Creative Writing. She has performed spoken word pieces at Jazz Fest and urban art installation Exhibit Be. Her work has been published in her school literary journal, Umbra and she has had national acknowledgement from Scholastic Writing Contest and William Faulkner Writing Contest. She enjoys writing poetry and fiction that reflect her southern lifestyle, reference her childhood, and explore the experiences of Black women.
