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poetry

NIECE
by
Carla Cherry

As she models her

brand new brand-name

dress

in the mirror,

I watch.


She gives her chocolate-brown

kinky twists

a toss

so her hair can fly.


She spins

to feel a wisp of cool air

against her butterscotch skin.


She smiles

and calls herself

the cutest girl in the world.


Shielding my eyes

from her sparkling aura,

I shake my head

and my index finger.


Stop that, I say,

thinking modesty is noble.


But then again,

as I look at my own life,

I am glad at what

my niece right now

believes—


maybe she

won't end up

with her self-esteem

all black and blue.



Carla Cherry is a mother, teacher, writer and native New Yorker. She was educated in New York City’s public school system and has been writing poetry, stories and personal essays since the age of eight. She has studied writing with the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center, Gotham Writers' Workshop and the Bronx Writers' Center.

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