woman
we were girls together
sitting on your bed
humming the music on vinyl
I still snap to
being 17 together
drawing college applications
like tarot cards
hovering our fingers over choices
& hoping for the best
of all possible outcomes
I want to know where
you left that girl stranded
pushed out of the car
you were driving too fast
so you could start looking outside yourself
for what you think you need
I need to know when
you started believing magazine definitions
of who you should be
which scales
to measure yourself by
& whose exchange
to trade your heart on
because that girl I remember
knew her own value
far more
than the woman you became
Susan Daniels Poetry 