by Kelly Sargent

We liked Elena with her knobby knees,
halter tops and pierced ears
who shared sticky Blow Pops
swiped from the stuffy Madrid market
on dog days when Spanish yayas
grunted stern Nos to girls who asked
to pedal trikes along the grape-vined walls
that fed rats who stayed in the shadows.

It was Carmen who most did not like
with True Grit on her coffee table,
even though her VCR was broken,
and who had punched that toughie in the gut
when he called her little sister retarded
because she could not hear
and talked with her hands.
Stay away from her,
frowning, coiffed grandmothers cautioned.

It was Elena who whistled her way in the stiff autumn air
to the start of school one year,
round-bellied like her mama’s tarnished teapot,
and offered us a packet of cherry Fun Dip to share
as she leaned into the grape vines.
Open-mouthed, we eyed her shocking middle.
She shrugged.
Too many Pop Rocks.

A significantly hearing impaired writer and artist adopted in Luxembourg, Kelly Sargent is the author of two memoirs in verse, Seeing Voices: Poetry in Motion (Kelsay Books, 2022) and Echoes in My Eyes (Kelsay Books, 2024), and a short form poetry collection entitled Bookmarks (Red Moon Press, 2023). Other works have appeared in more than eighty literary journals, most recently including Rattle, Chestnut Review, Eunoia Review, and Broad River Review. Honors include: Firebird Book Award winner, The Rash Award in Poetry finalist, Eric Hoffer Award nominee, Touchstone Award for Individual Poems nominee, and two-time Best of the Net nominee. She serves as the creative nonfiction editor of The Bookends Review. Kelly is on Facebook and you can visit kellysargent.com to learn more about her.