DANIELS, MINA
Mina Daniels
Age: 14, Grade: 9
School Name: Hunter College High School, New York, NY
Educator: Zachary Gale
Category: Poetry
Braids and Bows
She stares at clocks
She waits for the moments when the seconds hand hits twelve
She waits for when mommy or daddy may come home
She adorns herself in pretty princess dresses
Cinderella heels
Striking red lipstick
She does her hair up in braids and bows
And she sits in her princess pose
And she sits in her princess pose
And clutches a blade
And when she has nothing else to do
She will put a deck of cards in order
Piles of twos up to aces
And she saves the queens
She takes her scissors and cuts them out
She’s amassed so many
She has a pretty dolly too
Dolly sometimes tries to hurt her in her sleep
But she know dolly’s nice because she still wakes up
Small knife cuts cover her body with a thick layer of caked on blood, but she knows
Dolly’s holding back
She has nightmares filled with dolly’s eyes glowing red
But dolly’s sweet in the day time
So she does dolly’s hair up nice
Maybe next night dolly will love her
Maybe next time she’ll be loved
She wishes she was a princess
She hates this life
It’s ok
It’s ok
But dolly has a knife
“Maybe in next life I’ll have better luck, dolly”
So she puts on her prettiest princess dress
Her red lipstick like blood about to be shed
And her hair up in braids and bows
And inhales and exhales
Until she falls asleep again