Mariposa

Once upon a time

there was a small girl

who always headed up

the front of the line

in her class-

size order

in the bathroom

carved the word

bitch into the stall

with a compass

thick

with the same

compass

carved a name

into the corner

of her desk of

the pretty and

smart foreign

girl in her class

who sometimes

shared her lunch

with her

the same girl

who later licked

her mouth

in the same bath-

room stall where

the word bitch

was scrawled

stood behind her

on the lunch line

and traced words

down her back

in code