"Stand tall, wear a crown and be sweet on the inside." attributed to Kat Gaskin
Good posture was once taught
in health class or Girl Scouts
walking in a shifting circle
with books atop our hairdos
sliding off more than staying
on our impressionable heads
When I told male classmates
they laughed, I guess thinking
I was lying or inventing stories
for their fifth grade amusement
as we waited in separate lines
quietly for segregated bathrooms
Back then there were no signs
for the blind, no braille dots
no gender neutral welcoming
words in bold letters stating who
could enter regardless of sexual
identity, orientation or expression
Bathrooms now are available
for all, a concept that took far
far too long, now prevalent in
most public places although
I imagine current fifth graders
without girls balancing books
Atop their 21st century hair
still teasing fifth grade boys
as they travel freely heading
towards classes without bias
or perhaps this is just what
I hope is happening everywhere
For aren't we all one people
endowed with certain unalienable
rights and lefts that among these
are Life, Liberty and the pursuit
of Happiness with or without
an undue emphasis on standing tall
Unless you are a pineapple
ripening in a fruitseller's display
or waiting on a kitchen table amongst
apples and bananas and Anjou pears
you, wearing your green spiked crown
like the lovely Statue of Liberty lady
Symbolic of something forgotten
some colonial custom pushed aside
in vinyl-coated suburbs or lost
in gated communities but previously
at walkway's end, two pineapples
hospitably saying hello in silence
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