A HOT PATOOTIE IN THE SECOND GRADE
Her name was Vadoma.
Her hips swayed when she walked,
and her tongue licked her lips while she talked.
She liked to play spin the bottle without a bottle
in the clothes closet at the back of our classroom.
At the age of 7 she taught the boys how to kiss.
Vadoma had the blackest of black eyes
and dressed like a gypsy fortuneteller.
She read palms in a trance induced by chewing Dentyne.
Her purple fingernails pointed to our future.
She invited us to her house when nobody was home,
and generously shared her well-stocked frig
full of Charlotte Ruse, Reddi-Wip and Dixie-cups.
To everyone’s surprise, she became a mother
at the age of 13.