Ode to Cherise
Im the once and irreplaceable Cherise,
Don’t try and see me in light other than what I shine on you.
Let me go, so you are forever enticed by me.
Gouge my eyes out,
slap me red and silly,
I’ll patiently wait here trying to write for you and about you.
Like a father and mother, you have been.
Five years old, ball of innocence wearing the plushy mask of childhood.
You, mother and father, bundle me in red blankets of passion.
Lift my feet and take my shoulders.
I’ll swing back and forth like the restless summer shandy in my warm belly.
My brothers are jealous of my warmth.
Magnify the light on them
Reap these ants of life.
It’s a bug’s life after all.
I’ve never seen you click the safety on your gun,
And I’ve been shot many times.
Build me up with smiles and eyebrows, defined and chiseled,
only to turn the magnifying glass in my direction,
I hope I did you justice,
kiss me goodnight before bed and tuck me in real tight,
Like Mother—like Father.
No, it’ll never be the same.
*This is an excerpt of a poem I wrote to my dear friend and artist Cherise Arthur, she taught me a lot about life over the course of our friendship.
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