I once sat in
parking lots
with boys in
torn collars.
One had red hair,
he gave me sips
of schnapps
I was fourteen
and crowded with
the sparkling
abundance of
treasure.
I pretended to
like camel cigarettes
the sound of
smoke in
my throat was
a giveaway
to how young
I didn’t want to be.
A.M. O’ Malley lives in Portland, OR where she is the Executive Director of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. Her writing has appeared in Nailed Magazine, Poor Claudia, and The Burnside Review, among other publications. Expecting Something Else is her first full-length book of poems and came out this spring on University of Hell Press. Follow A.M. O’Malley at amomalley.com.
