YELLOW

Prompt: write about the words yellow & tangled.

Challenged by Emma Rybin.

You were all the forgotten yellow things,

like number two pencils.

People were always telling me not to forget you,

when life became a test.

I used to have long yellow hair,

that was constantly curly,

and constantly tangled,

and the boy in 10th grade math always touched it,

and the girl in the 9th grade locker room always hated it,

and my fingers always fixed it,

and my 11th grade self chopped it off.

You were all the forgotten tangled things,

like earbuds and heart strings.

And the boy in 12th grade art class had this habit

of always taking my earbuds and untangling them.

I never had the heart to tell him I didn't mind them that way.