Sophia M. Giudici
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Tattoos
Some of us grow up
To make our bodies coloring books—
Stories marking warm skin.
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Playing Dress Up
Why are children the only ones allowed
to dress up in every color of their dreams?
They come outside on Saturday mornings
still vested in the vestiges of sleep
Train pajamas topped with a princess dress,
the nightgown-costume she refused to take off,
because the world has not yet made her believe
she is not worth a crown, or too old for
Make believe. Why do we make life so grey?
Lovely chaos of our adolescence,
must we become shrouded in maturity?
Is growing up a mere shading of our brilliance?
Do we only last if our colors dull?
No! Resist dilution and such dimming—
if cocoons were meant to nourish our growth,
then hues must become richer, saturated,
Bright dreams in Technicolor—Unbridled.
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Sophia M. Giudici is a PhD student in English at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Originally from New Jersey, she is a poet and artist. She has been published in two online journals, Vermilion and Latin@ Literatures, and in print at the Hank Center at Loyola University Chicago’s Nexus. She has performed for the American Poetry Museum in Washington, D.C.
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Posted in Kaleidoscopes, Sep '25 and tagged in #boudin, #poetry, Poetry