small girl growing into woman
I refuse pink
I refuse make up
I refuse social
I refuse girl talk
I refuse parties
I refuse dates
I accept exchange
another country
for my senior year
you don't want to miss
your senior year of high school
says AFS, rejecting me
yes I do
and YFU accepts
and I can try being social
I accept parties
I accept beer
I accept social
but I am the American
and when I am weird
it is blamed on that
I am therefore the least weird
I have ever been
in twelve years of school
and I have a boundary
of foreignness that I can erect
at any moment
I refuse makeup still
for years and years
I am good at school
even in a language not mine
and I continue
the darkest thing I can imagine
is to be a wife
supporting a man's career
I refuse and go on