Ruby
D. Dina Friedman

I enter my life the way words entered me . . .
by falling through the silence of this wide open mouth
                                                                   –Ocean Vuong
 

​            The teacher, all neck and no feathers
mouth gaping like an angry bird…
 
                                    Keep your children home!
                                    Don’t let them go to school with N_____s! 
 
What words cut
            as she enters her life 
 
                                    the cafeteria, empty
                        the playground, empty 
 
A man in a suit blocks the door
                                    He’s the governor. He lets the crowd swell
                        a huge mouth
            spitting venom on a little girl
with bows in her hair
 
            Her classroom, a closet by the basement stairs 
            No other children
 
Outside, the crowd flaunts a coffin
            with a little black doll