Outside Seven-Eleven, Next Week

[media-credit name=”Jon Henderson” align=”alignnone” width=”640″][/media-credit]
Unless I’ve been brainwashed
my name is Leilani Mae Jasperson
they’re trying to find me
I want a room with a camera
I would like a job with the government
Jack said Wyman’s going to kill me
there’s a price on my head
he has white skin and white hair my mother
won’t even help me she’s too scared
she’s in Cincinnati I can’t go to the police
my name is Leilani Mae Jasperson
but they stole my i.d.
Lieutenant Black and Richard Lyman know Jack
I don’t know if he’s very powerful or well-connected
or both I just want to do my art
Jack tore up my paintings
I wrote a song that was in my car
and they broke the windshield
they played it on Broadway
there’s this woman that looks like me
my daughter is in state custody
I want a job working for the government
I’ll do anything they tell me to
I’m very intelligent I saved Jack’s life
I hate drugs I only do them
when I’m feeling sorry for myself
she has eyes like mine
and hair like mine my name is Leilani Mae Jasperson
first I’m going to get a soda
smoke a cigarette
not getting on that bus
not going to Harborview
not going to look for my daughter
not going to phone mother
not going

Categories Poetry

Pamela Hobart Carter loves Seattle as much for its water and mountains as for its bustle and creativity. She explores the Emerald City daily while walking her dog. Carter used to be a teacher who wrote on the side. Now she is a writer who teaches on the side.

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