The Geek Girls Were we never robins? No, we...

Jan 24

The Geek Girls

Were we never robins? No, we never were.
No one recognized spring in us, though great elms
grew inside our rib cages. They pushed their spiny

tips outward, so that we felt small stabbings daily,
but they never broke through. So we were never spring,
never foliage. We were the small and oddball beasts:

anoles, silverfish, shrimp. We moved fast and sideways,
upways, allways but straight. We heard of nights lit
with lightning bugs and cigarettes. With rumflame

and tonguefire. We needed none of it. The nights were
black puzzleboxes and we solved them. It was easy—
in the darkness, our minds sparked like flint.

— Catherine Pierce