Swim Shorts

Maggie Devers

She’s wearing swim shorts

That don’t fit her

And never will

Because her buns are too small

She calls it her booty

And shakes it

Which is hilarious

Because she’s five

But what can you expect

Growing up in WeHo.

Will she be the first to feel true liberation?

I have felt bits of it, through her

Because it’s easy not to give a damn

When you’re a mom.

You have to choose,

But once you do

It takes work for them to hurt you

Because it’s endlessly easy to protect her

At all costs.

Now I realize why women are so terrifying

and I love it!

So she’s wearing the swim shorts

With the gaps

And heaving her dive sticks

One by one

Into the pool

And she wants them scattered

Because it’s harder that way and

“Harder is more fun”

And I realize this is the point of it all,

Of this life, and all our other lives before–

She wore swim shorts.