31: I AM RUNNING INTO A NEW YEAR

After Lucille Clifton

i am running into a new year
and every prime is its own
mountain: promising & quite silly.
31 craves a blonde buss down & yet
a low risk natural blowout—green—spun
from mango butter & spirulina. maybe bangs.
who i am today is who i am at 17
is who i am at 23, 11, 57 and 239.
31 is another float above sunrise.
more importantly, 31 is never coming back.
my mother asks what would possess me
to get 2 different style acrylics
1 on each hand?
everything there is to want, i do 
and have paid for dearly.

Miona Short is a poet and inventor from Chicago. Her work has been featured in Voicemail Poems, PBS Wisconsin, and Button Poetry.