Piñata

There are a lot of things I wish stayed in middle school

my six foot boyfriend and his six inch jewfro

my portrait snapped mid sneeze

and being the class piñata  

I’m halfway through college

and I still recognize my face on unwanted posters

my name better in gossip than greeting

Some of us never outrun our bullies

never discover how to conceal the kick me tattoos

We are never invited to the party

but find ourselves

dangling from the ceiling

neon limbs outstretched

from a crayon tinted belly

They parade beneath me

clenching thick clubs and sealed teeth

They say I’m too colorful

a flamboyant mess coated in paper maché skin

an elementary school experiment with safety scissor edges

bleeding from elmer’s glue ligaments

The game begins

Boys and girls take blind turns

stampeding me with wood

to see what they can beat out

as if I have not already felt the collision of fists

as if I haven’t rubbed salt in my own wounds

as if my life path isn’t paved with egg shells

As I’m choking on my noose

a friend whispers

they are just egg shells

I wasn’t invited but yet I am the main event of your fiesta

To all my pinatas;

the reason they swing

is because you hang three feet above them

Don’t forget they are men playing a child’s game

Empty heart chambers stab at our stomachs

because they’re desperate to consume our calories

Ask them,

what’s it like to be hollow?

to beat hypertonic blood and too much oxygen

create words but just spit out air

Call them a crowd of waning atmospheres

without enough burn to evaporate the sea you carry

the vulnerability to release your feet from the earth

I’ve learned my dangle is just clumsy flying

that my thick thighs applaud as I strut to class

that you picked the wrong piñata

that you can’t break me

and if you puncture my flesh,

bite me

I’m made of jawbreakers

hard enough to crack your strongest bones

My bubblegum lungs exhale bursts of stars

I don’t care if my flavor is too much for you to digest

They made my tongue from twizzlers and heart of hershey's

Let’s snicker at gravity

Even Newton can’t get us to obey his laws

They say every action gets an equal and opposite reaction

but we can drown stabs in a tsunami of sugar

kill them with candy

bursting our stomachs will only make us more hungry

so go ahead,

take a swing.