In sixth grade
we’d walk down Hamilton Street
beneath trees that were older
than the houses
Frank Ruiz, Richard Green, Elvis Norman
the conversation was always
about girls and swear words
I being the smallest
never offered anything
besides an occasional “yeah….”

one spring morning
school was let out early
for parent-teacher conferences
and Frank started talking about Lucy
a girl he convinced to lift her dress
behind the Pocaro house
like a patio umbrella
opened wide for all to see
and without thinking said
“only whores give you what you want! ”
and as a guy, you should always want it
and it was as simple as that

it probably would have made perfect sense
to me, in my eleven year old wisdom
except the night before
I was told my older sister
who was fifteen
was also pregnant
and when the word whore
is used outside the safety
of a dictionary
it not only hurts
it can make you cry