Vivian’s Pet Project

Vivian left her bottle of sparkling water next to the lightboard,

and so I started wearing tanktops, which revealed my arms

whose hair grows blonde and thick like a field of wheat,

so I sowed it with a razor, and my forearms

sort of stang so I bought lotion, and it smelled nice like

the corn field blossoms in my mom’s hometown

and I like smelling nice so I bought perfume from Sephora

that was supposed to smell like lychee but instead stank like

something sharper

and while I was in there I bought eye makeup and thought it made

my eyes look like brown geodes but it

made them itch so I bought eyedrops and

when I blinked the world was clear and quiet like after a rainfall

and I finally noticed what my mom and aunts

call my stems and liked them

so I bought shorts but you could see a whole lot of long green leg

and I decided I needed a nice pair of boots to dig into the world’s side like

a cowboy on a bucking stallion but

then I was too covered up to feel the warmth of the sun and there

was a party next weekend so I got a

shirt that showed off my collarbones and

that was a problem because I didn’t like

how much of my chest you could see

so I bought a new bra but it didn’t fit so I had to go shopping again

and Tonya and I got matching brandy melville

underwear so her girlfriend could finally love her and

because i thought it would prove my point

but it didn’t and I still wasn’t as pretty or mature as Vivian was

and my clothes were tight and small which made me feel like

a tornado trapped in a carton of milk, and not even the gallon kind

so I went to the party and screamed raccoon shrieks and laughed a hyena cackle,

and Vivian told me to go talk to Carson and I did but

he just looked at me funny so i looked at me in the nearest puddle of vomit

and remembered I forgot to ask my mom about a nose job

to fix my beak.