Swim Shorts

She’s wearing swim shorts 
That don’t fit her 
And never will
Because her buns are too small
She calls it her booty 
And shakes it 
Which is hilarious
Because she’s five
But what can you expect
Growing up in WeHo

Will she be the first to feel 
true liberation?

I have felt bits of it, through her
Because it’s easy not to give a fuck
When you’re a mom.
Well you have to choose,
But once you do,
It takes work for them to hurt you
Because it’s endlessly easy to protect her
At all costs.

Now I realize why women are so terrifying 
and I love it!

So she’s wearing the swim shorts
With the gaps
And heaving her dive sticks
One by one
Into the pool
And she wants them scattered 
Because it’s harder that way and
“Harder is more fun”
And I realize this is the point of it all,
Of this life, and all our other lives before,
She wore baggy swim shorts.

John Singer Sargent | Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose | Oil on Canvas | 1885-86 | Tate Gallery, London