youngblood sister
Puma Perl © 2008
5 flights over 10th street
behind window gates
and a police lock
i lived
a bathtub in the kitchen
had a door on top
red wood floors brick walls
in a loft bed
i slept
beneath a poem
written on the ceiling
in neat block letters
youngblood sister
you who are older than i
your eyes dark with stories untold
you leap across rooftops
fly over fences
your hips move in the night
poems sing in your head
but are your hands quick enough
to stop the knife that will
slash your pretty cheek
little youngblood sister
i want to walk you home
you just run away laughing
quick but not quick enough
i lost the poem
in a fire
and the writer
to a bullet
he held the gun
with the same hand
that touched me
the night
he named me
his youngblood sister
(originally published in Wayward Word, 4/08)
Puma Perl is a poet and fiction writer who believes strongly in the transformative power of the creative arts. Her work has been published in cause & effect , Instant Pussy , The Mom Egg, Brain Box , and other print and on-line publications. She has been a featured reader in various New York City venues. She is currently at work on her first book, which will be a series of linked poems based on lower east side life in the 1970's and 80's.