Equal At The End

I thought of putting this on my tombstone, if I ever have one:

you had fame and I had shame
yet in life we were the same

you had beauty and I did not
in the end we were equal rot

you were rich and I was poor
now we are both nevermore
nevermore.

Young Beauty and Then Gone

her beauty was too young
her arms tight and golden
a body like a perfectly made craft
hair laying just right on her lemon shoulder
barbie never looked this good

her mother ugly as black dust
a brutal sin
unessential square face and small eyes
dry hair so that dogs ran away

the father, a skinny black man
with a disappearing name
shiny skin, quiet
left when she was young
for a better future with a red head
in the Northeast named dorthy

beauty was giraffe tall
with straight hair
like a real white woman
dark dirty blonde
she was dirty at times
cussing when she didn’t get her way

so young and confused she
smoked late into the night secretly
but the agency found her
at McDonald’s unimpressed by day
in pajamas at night with ice cream
dripping down her plump corner-to-corner lips

they placed her in the lights
they placed her on thighs
magazines got to know her name though
not even out of the teens
and fame was spreading
through her immature bones
her twisted body confused, directionless
she was a sad kid

then she found a man
and heroin

I haven’t seen her since

M.D. Jordan 2013