Mimi.

when I was about ten
I decided that I liked things sleek
and smooth
and shiny.

and my uncle
had this car
a limo
because he invented
some fast food place
and got rich.

the thing about my uncle was
neither of my parents liked him
because
they said
he was a cheat.

but I didn't care
because he had this shiny car
and it was always polished
and perfect.

so my parents hated it
but I spent all of my free time
in his car
staring out the tinted windows
and telling him how shiny it all was.

Roger.

when I was a kid
I had an older brother
who was always one-upping me,
beating me by one point in basketball
dating the girl I liked
stealing my hat
and hiding it
because he was taller.

he was golden
and he could do no wrong
and he had fans
even in our tiny
tiny
tiny
high school.

then I came along
an awkward
nervous
worried
freshman
and he was still golden

so I worked hard
I started a band
and had flawless grades
and tried my hardest to get a girlfriend
and even with all that
and even after he graduated
I was still only silver.

April.

outside of looking in the mirror
at my own eyes,
the first time I can remember
seeing the color green
was in the carpet of my parents' house.
it was a foresty color
like treetops
or seaweed
or the tiny green houses in monopoly.

the grass outside was green too
but that was only for the first three years
when we lived in suburbia.
after that
in the city
it was just the carpet
and the fading paint on the car.

Mark.

once
when Roger was in withdrawal
and I was still dating Maureen
she said that
I didn't care about her.

she said it was impossible
for anyone
(except for Roger)
or anything
to faze me
in any way.
and she was right.

she said
that I was like the ocean
which makes its own waves
whenever it wants.

and never
ever
does the ocean care about
whatever the fuck is going on
outside of its own little world.
and she was right

because no matter how many boats
glide across the ocean
and no matter how many fish
shit in the ocean
and no matter how many people
pollute the ocean
it's still blue
(or mostly blue)
and it's still calm
for as long as it wants to be.

Joanne.

I don't know how they did it
but somehow
it seems that every group,
religious
or racial
or based on sexual orientation,
has some sort of symbol.

homosexuality
is rainbow.

more specifically
gay is pink
and lesbian is purple.

the only problem is
I've always
always
always
always
always hated purple.

Collins.

when my sister was born
she was tiny
and loud
and we were all wondering
how something so small
could make so much noise.

we decided that
it was because
she was a girl.

she was my parents' fifth child
and first daughter.

they bought her pink curtains
and a pink crib
and pink booties
and pink cloth diapers
which they soon learned
didn't work

at least, on her.
everything was pink
until she turned five
and she said
she really would have preferred blue.

Benny.

in my town as a kid
things were black and white
(literally)
but mostly white.

gray
was nothing more than
the school buildings
the courthouse
the curtains in windows
and sneakers
after being worn
and worn
and worn again
to the point that the laces were limp
and the soles exhausted.

in the city
things were different
because when I got off the train
the first thing I saw was
a hot dog vendor
with a yellow cart
and he wore a yellow hat.

from there
I took a yellow taxi
to my apartment building
which was gray
but had yellow curtains.

Maureen.

once upon a time
it was my senior prom
and I had no one to go with
because I had expected
that some guy
at the last minute
would come to his senses
and invite me.

but no one did
which was depressing
until my mother
being the sucker that she was
pulled her old prom dress from her closet
and held it out to me.

it was gold
and she had the shoes to match
which were a little too big for me
but I put them on anyway
and stuffed them with cotton balls.

it was the gold that got me
because even without a date
and even without a purse
or makeup
or jewelry
I felt like a princess.

and what's more
I looked amazing.

Angel.

when I was growing up
there wasn't a lot of room for self-expression.
we lived in a small trailer
where there was a wall
and daddy's bed
and another wall.
it was slate gray.
all of it.

when I left home
I left to the suburbs first
because I wanted to see color.
and I did

the second I stepped outside
I saw the grass
and the sky
and the trees
and the rainbow.

after that
I almost didn't want to leave
for the city
because I was scared
that the color would slip away.