the day she was not dead

i lend a dead girl twenty-five cents

she wasn't dead then
she waited till the weekend

this happened by the soda machine

not her death
i'm referring to the lending

she was meant for suicide;
for overdose
but that's not the way that a flu kills

years before this;
two

i had traded poke cards
hers fake, two real from my part

this happened by the red brick walls of elementary

i wasn't listening at the memorial
i don't know if it was coffin or not

this happened on Talbert and Brookhurst

i remember the dirty black hoodie,
that the dead girl, not dead yet,
wore on lending day

she wanted a soda
from the soda machine
the day she was not dead

what a jerk i can be to the dead