Girls who grew up on Britney and Christina
Our mothers and principals waged wars
Over our bare arms in spaghetti straps
While we snuck peeks at our fathers’ Playboys
Desired and desire were inseparable for us
The perfume-sample scent of our Seventeens
The pages turning like the steps of a spell
Our voices for a pair of legs and a prince
To want to be wanted was the female condition
Our shampoo came in bottles half-full of trapped flowers
We were mermaids who washed our hair with petals
Our waves tumbled down from towers
We trailed tiny plastic butterflies behind us
A breadcrumb path we’d never follow
We were wonder tale wanderers
From summer forests to strange bedrooms
We made poetry of what we lost
We loved the losing most of all
We owned nothing, we flew and fell—
Is it wrong to say I miss us?
Stephanie Parent is a graduate of the Master of Professional Writing program at USC. Her poetry has been nominated for a Rhysling Award and Best of the Net. Follow her on Twitter at @SC_Parent.