like a rosebud

in the style of Cisneros
              because her themes of home, shame, and hope are true
              because her similes are just right.
inspired by Gabi
              a middle schooler

Gabi is the girl with teeth wrapped in green and silver and hair the color of old wood. The kids at school think she is funny because her laugh touches earth and sky like a wild tornado and her eyes squint like a secret trying to get out. The teachers think she is off task because her face is never on her papers and her pencil is never in her hand.
Gabi sighs because she is holding in her giggles, her opinions, her questions that are "unrelated to the topic." She says she is lost and if she can ask me a question. I say after she does her warm-up. She is always elsewhere like a dog in a park but she does it. She has many worries, but the big one is her boyfriend she left and feels bad about.
One day she is not sure about her feelings and holds her breath like a scared balloon and says, It's Over.  But the next day he sits next to her in class. He helps her find the square root of 49 and she holds her breath like a rosebud and thinks, I'm Lost.
She asks for advice. It is okay to be lost. Stay lost and bloom.