Reality Bites

We used to play it
on the cement slab,
four squares marked out,
grass growing between the lines

We tried not to pay attention
to the world around us
We were girls
just trying to have fun

But that’s where Jesse R.
humped the air and
whistled at us
and it’s where Mario C.
told Adona she had nice knockers
and it’s where Brandon H.
cut in and said, I’ve got something
you can play with if you’re
getting bored with Four Square

We chased them off,
but they always came back,
_______leering

I was eight years old
when I learned
I was not a girl
just trying to have fun

I would never be a girl
just trying to have fun
I was a body on display
for the fun of the
world

Rachel Toalson is the author of The Colors of the Rain, The Woods, The First Magnificent Summer, and Something Maybe Magnificent (Simon& Schuster, 2024). Her poetry has been published in print magazines and literary journals around the world. She lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband and six sons.