She writes, this seventh grader

of a mother who

told her that mom was leaving, and

daughter must choose between

grandmother and father

In a beautiful hand, she writes

of loneliness and tears

of a trailer in place of her two story home

of financial problems

In a most correct English, she writes

of a new stepmother

of unhappy choices

finally resolved to a new happiness

stepmother and stepdaughter become friends

The pain I read as she writes

of stepmother's new found cancer

of new tears

self doubt

-has she hurt her new mother

-has she done something to cause it

Her new mother cried all night

She cried all day in class

I reread but the truth is there

She writes, this seventh grader,

of her life.