Sign up to EliteSkills

Her sleep is disrupted as she slams off the alarm clock
She pushes her way out of the bathroom shooing away the newborn puppies
In a frenzied hurry she heads out the door with a package of pop-tarts
Moments later she is at the bus stop, resting below the weeping willow
As she catches her breath she checks her hair in her compact mirror
The gum she had in her mouth as she slept is grossly stale. She puts it in a tissue.

She steps on the bus and throws into a trash the used tissue
As she takes a seat she wonders if she merely pressed the sleep button on her alarm clock.
Absent-mindedly she watches the boy in the blue shirt in the bus driver’s mirror.
She curses as the bus pulls up at the school remembering that she forgot to feed her puppies.
Before first period she remembers she has homework and writes a sloppy poem on the ‘essence of the weeping willow’
But while scavenging through her backpack for a pen she crushed the pop tarts.

At lunch she sits alone and munches silently on her broken pop tarts
A student is weeping in the cafeteria and she makes sure to find them a tissue
She walks into English class as her peers rip her piece apart on the weeping willow
She wonders how someone got an “A” in art for a smashed alarm clock
Borrowing a cell phone from a friend she asks her mom to care for the puppies
In the bathroom she rushes into a stall as the ‘popular girls’ fix their make-up in the mirror

After they leave she stares intently; hating the person staring at her in the mirror
She rushes back into the stall to throw up her pop tarts
She tries to push her way through the day still worrying about her puppies
Through out class she makes pictures from a torn up tissue
She jumps awake in 5th when someone’s phone sounds like her alarm clock
She runs all the way home below charcoal clouds never even stopping to look at her beloved weeping willow

The rain begins to fall like tears from the branches of the weeping willow
She wonders what kind of cruel person would buy someone who hates their reflection a mirror
Laughing to herself she walks into her room and turns of the alarm clock
She looks at the shopping list on the fridge and adds ‘pop tarts’
After doing a checklist of the house she adds ‘cheese’ and ‘tissues’
Looking at the clock she reminds herself that soon she will need to feed the puppies

At her ankles she feels the slight nip of four hungry puppies
She feels within her heart the sorrow of the lonely weeping willow
She wipes away the running mascara with a tissue
Without a sound she stares at her naked reflection in the mirror
She blames her weight on one too many pop tarts
In the silence of her room begins the *beep* *beep* *beep* of the alarm clock

She ignores the alarm clock and the crying puppies
She doesn’t care about the pop tarts or the weeping willow
She breaks the mirror and stifles the blood with a tissue