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      February 27, 2014Lauren E. CarterA Girl of Five or Eight’s Exemplum

      Around the age of
      five or eight
      a small child snuck into her mother’s closet
      and stole her most expensive pair of heels.
      She smeared pink lipstick across her face
      and smiled.
      Although the three-sizes-too-big shoes on her feet
      and the huge pink grin she wore made her
      resemble a clown
      she was beautiful.

      Around ten or nine
      she did the same
      but her mother’s shoes began to fit
      and the lipstick stayed within the lines.
      She walked up and down the carpeted hallways
      leaving light shoe prints snug into the deep base
      while balancing on the needle that supported her few steps
      before she fell face first into the shoeprints she had made.

      Through years eleven and twelve
      instead of adding, subtracting, and dividing worksheets
      she added, subtracted, and divided how many more inches
      until she was five-foot-eight
      with a calculator, of course.

      At year thirteen
      her mother’s heels were replaced by her own
      and the pink had turned to dark shades of red
      but the smile had faded.
      There were too many inches to grow
      and too many to lose.
      The mirror went from her best friend
      to her worst enemy.

      But until year twenty-three
      she will never realize
      she is not a girl
      who is in pictures
      on her wall.
      She will always be a girl
      who wore her mother’s high heels
      and smeared pink lipstick across her face.

      from 2014 RYPA

      Lauren E. Carter (age 14)

      Why do you like to write poetry?

      “I was sitting in front of my computer screen for a good half-hour trying to figure out how to answer this question in the most creative, professional, and impressive way possible. The longer I sat there, the more I realized I could only say the truth. To be honest, I barely write poetry. In fact, ‘A Girl of Five or Eight’s Exemplum’ was a school assignment in which the directions simply stated ‘tell a story.’ So I did. I quite literally just wrote, made sure it flowed nicely, and printed it, along with some others, hoping it stood out.”