IN NO SENSE

"He's calling you a Cool Girl to fool you! That's what [boys] do: They try to make it sound like you are the Cool Girl so you will bow to their wishes." Gillian Flynn

Off and on over the past several years, I have heard stories about girls - some as young as 10 or 11 - wearing jelly bracelets in various colors to send a silent message to boys about what physical/sexual favors they are willing to perform if asked. I only recently became aware that this social phenomenon is part of a game called “SNAP!” Apparently, the game involves the “snapper” choosing the color of bracelet that represents the “service” he desires and then snapping off that bracelet from the wrist of the “snappee.”

There is an intricate color coding system covering relatively innocent things, like hugging (white bracelet) and kissing (orange bracelet), to mid-range things, like hickeys (pink bracelet) and flashing (glittery pink bracelet), to full out sex acts of every conceivable kind (green, blue, black bracelets).

Part of me wants to say I am shocked and appalled, and I am shocked and appalled by how young these girls are and how much damage their blasé attitude towards sex will ultimately undermine their dignity and sense of self-worth. I am also shocked by how blatant they are in their behavior. However, it would be hypocritical of me to deny that in my own teenage years, my girlfriends and I did flaunt ourselves in sexy, flirtatious ways to get the attention of boys we were interested in getting to know. We were bold and stupid risk takers looking for love. Today’s poem is a bit about that.

IN-NO-SENSE

In no sense
did we
have sense
or innocence
in those days of
giggly girl
pretense
pretending to be
older than jailbait
risking pick-ups
by tricked out
pick-up trucks
in our skintight t-shirts
with
nascent
breasts
pressing
against the threads
testing
our virginal morals
in hopes they proved
loose enough
to slip off our hip-hugging jeans
or
to give
hand jobs
to horny boys
to get
hand-holding
romance with
hearts and flowers
and promises of
forever
which
never
came
after
they
did.