Girlhood

Mattie Pittard // freshman

free-verse poem

Girlhood is putting on mommy’s six-inch heels and trying to walk across your toy-littered bedroom

Climbing up the old magnolia in your backyard, barefoot and blissfully innocent

It’s pulling on a black robe and pretending to be a witch on a broom

Girlhood is having an imagination where the possibilities are imminent

Girlhood is playing in the creek behind your house for hours on end

Getting summer strawberries on your knees from falling off your bike

It’s going up to someone at lunch and making a new best friend

Girlhood is drawing flowers that you find on a hike

Girlhood is decorating your locker on the first day of middle school

Your first sleepover, baking cookies and watching romance

It’s being scared to wear your favorite bathing suit to the pool

Girlhood is losing your child-like love for dance

Girlhood is not wanting to take up too much space

Looking at your reflection while you curl your lashes and plump your lips

It’s keeping every bouquet of flowers given to you beside your bed in a colorful vase

Girlhood is wishing you had bigger hips

Girlhood is falling in love way too fast

Always having a headphone in

It’s saying, “Yes, I’m fine” with a smile whenever you are asked

Girlhood is finding the women whose side you never want to leave

And dancing with them until you can’t stand

It’s dreaming about your future, and getting kissed on New Year’s Eve

Girlhood is sitting in the car with your chosen sisters, listening to Phoebe, hand in hand

Girlhood is ups and downs, always changing

It’s finding joy in the hardest of days

Girlhood is finding other women to go through it all with, bond unwavering

It’s being emotional and creative, and feeling love always

Girlhood is pure bliss