a chunky little girl
with two trenzas
smiles
at dad.
dad smiles back,
securing the little girl’s hope,
while mother reluctantly smiles back –
(because she has to be happy for her mija
even though the demonized truth beats her black and blue) –
‘round 5PM –
after a day of mirth with dad,
the little girl was convinced
she’d be like the rest of the children at school! dad would pick her up after her final class,
dad would read her bedtime stories,
dad would attend her baseball games
strike ‘em out, kiddo!
–
back at the barrio,
life resumes.
–
weeks pass
—no word from dad—
the little girl figures,
we just have to see him!
she pesters mother
the same way the unforgiving bills do, producing tears each time –
“you just don’t want me to have no dad!”
the mother is villainized,
while the absent father is glorified. –
the cycle persists –
as the little girl sits,
waiting for a man
that never wanted to
be there in the first place.
M.S. Blues is an 18 year old writer, editor, mentor, and advocate from San Jose, California. She’s one of the most decorated figures in the literary magazine community, having been published over 140 times and serving on multiple staff boards; The Amazine, Adolescence Magazine, The Elysian Chronicles, Hyacinthus Zine, Chromatic Stars Review, Low Hanging Fruit, Sister Time, DICED Online Magazine, The Mixtape Review, The Mirrorball Magazine, My Dearest Aphrodite, The Cawnpore Magazine, The Beaulieu Gazette, Sorry! Zine, and Voices of Asylum. She’s also the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of The Infinite Blues Review. Her Instagram is @m.s.blues_