On the Occasion of the Inspiring Launch of Australian Bestselling Literary Salon Women of Letters at Joe’s Pub in New York City[1]

Lori is colorless

of dubious fame

like many colorless girls before her

Took a tired punchline

I fell in love with a convict

a noisy whingeing when colorful girls use it

but in her mouth

her pretty but mean girl mouth

it was grave! moving! amazing really!

according to the MC

also colorless in an asymmetrical dress

Paltrow hair, colorless

Jolie lips, colorless

Bette eyes, colorless that cut through Sasheer

the only colorful girl

She goes first because Nobody goes first

ahead of the colorless girls

her hair, her hotpants, her mouth

her vulnerability all colorful

Sasheer says being a broke artist in NY

was unromantic

was vulnerable

was filled with shame

selling not her craft,

(and she is crafty, you can tell)

but multiple eggs

anesthetized

harvested

between her legs, freshest caviar

always cheap when the fish in the colorless sea

is colorful

$8000

a fortune

when you are young gifted and black

but your ovaries are indentured

and they don’t gush over the ultrasound

Sasheer was merciful

she helped us to laugh along with her comic delivery

not hahaha laugh but damn what won’t they steal from us

you’re lucky they didn’t take your kidneys too Sissy

And then it’s Lorri

she actually looks at Sasheer

really looks at Sasheer

sitting the way colorful girls

are taught to sit

modest (but surely proud of her Letter to her Wake Up Call)

with her knees pressed tight together

so boys don’t look up up there

Lori says with a big man white voice

That was funny!

and she means hahahahahahahahahahaha

and they, everybody, hahahahahahahahaha at Sasheer

because it’s kinda funny when a colorful girl

is priced DISCOUNT rack

a non-story

when she, once full of color

is never exonerated

Lori tells us in that strange BMW voice

This – (MY STORY) – isn’t funny

and they stop hahahahahahahaha

and feel

and weep a little

and gasp

and empathize

after all she is so

unique

anomalistic

stoic

suffering what no colorless girl should ever experience

story that’s not just a story

but romantic and overwrought enough to make a great chick flick

Renee or even Cate

opposite

Joaquin or maybe Ryan

op-ed material

the Pipers, the Loris

our brightly Burning Beds

Chiseche Salome

[1] A celebration of a diverse range of strong female talent