I still blush when someone tells me I’m beautiful
and it’s not like I haven’t heard it a hundred times before, it’s just that
they only ever stay for a little while and
lately I’ve been thinking my tequila-blurred optimism might be construed as
a lack of pride, and lately I’ve been contemplating
just getting off this roller coaster ride that’s
less adrenaline rush than sinister lullaby
every seductive twist and dive yanks me rag-doll senseless
snaps my neck back, makes my nose bleed. Every dizzying spiral
jolts me in and out of consciousness – this déjà-vu
this neon flicker of perverted memories; punk rock and bloody razors
sonnets and suicide notes, milkshakes and muted cries
pink quills and safety pins.
•••
Simone Leid is a Trinidad and Tobago national, fellow of the Cropper Foundation Creative Writers Workshop and Founder of The WomenSpeak Project – an online forum which encourages Caribbean women to tell their stories of discrimination
tongues of the ocean 
simone
wow, that ‘as’ sticking out is seriously annoying the heck outta me. Messes up my nice couplets.
simone
ooops my bad. had the computer zoom way up. that’s better.