BY CLS SANDOVAL
Copyright is held by the author.
Often overlooked
overshadowed by plants
with more vibrant colours
bigger flowers
more defined leaves
the narrowleaf milkweed
dotted the hillside behind our middle school
Maybe it wanted to go unnoticed
when all I wanted was more attention
My sister, like the milkweed
of our native San Diego
wished the same
to be less noticed
less spotlight
on what others might deem
her imperfections
what I would call her assets
Not all flowers need to be a daisy or rose
not all minds need to go in the same order
at the same speed
be fed the same way
or even the same fuel
Let the narrowleaf milkweed plants
stand where their seeds scattered and took root
let them sway in the North County air
let them attract and feed the bees and butterflies
let them enjoy the sun
and the marine layer
the mist
the rare rains
and all of us middle schoolers
making our way through the maze they created for us
as we claw
and scrape
and stumble
toward our adulthood
***
CLS Sandoval, PhD (she/her) is a writer and communication professor with accolades in film, academia, and creative writing who speaks, signs, acts, publishes, sings, performs, writes, paints, teaches, and rarely relaxes. She’s presented at communication conferences, lead writing and performance workshops, served as a poetry and flash editor, published 15 academic articles, two academic books, three full-length literary collections, three chapbooks, and both flash and poetry pieces in literary journals, recently including Opiate Magazine, The Journal of Radical Wonder, and A Moon of One’s Own. She is raising her daughter, son, and dog with her husband in Walnut, CA, U.S.