"Is Cheryl Blossom Rich?" [by Janice Erlbaum]

Is Cheryl Blossom Rich?

Cheryl Blossom, dryad of the seventh grade,
At a school named for a forest: Greenwood,
Oakwood. She takes ballet, walks like a birch,
Her liquid hair waves hello in the hallway.
Cheryl Blossom: half human, half flowering
Tree. Spring, she turns white, blood in her lips.
Are you rich, Cheryl Blossom? Her eyes are black
Knots, her jodhpurs velveteen moss. Of course,
She rides a horse. The horse is made of gold.
Other girls are rocks and snakes; there is Crystal,
With eyes like a drying brown lake; there is Sage,
Who burns and stinks; there is Paige, who drowns
In ink. There are witches in her beauty,
More natural than nature; she is the tenth color,
The sexless sex. Please. She's only twelve.
Her mother is half griffin, and I heard her father
Is made of money.

-- Janice Erlbaum