Miss Crazy

This poem was written by my younger daughter when she was 12 years old. At school, they were assigned to write something about who they see themselves as in the future. I used it for the story “Miss Crazy.”

See in Russian https:  //proza.ru/2023/01/29/1632

Spelling of the original has been preserved.

             Miss Crazy

Everyone knew her as the “crazy one”
With messy brown hair and wrinkled trenchcoat
Who always carried a sketchbook
and firmly believed that Kanye West was terrible
in every sense of the word

Dear Reader, Miss Crazy
doesn’t have a well known name
one that’s up in bright lights
Nore does she have a stock portfolio
With bigger numbers than you can count to

Quite the contrary,
She lives in the cluttered apartment
that overlooks the Prisengracht
or some human chessboard
near a cannabis cafe

Wearily rushing to catch her train,
she takes out her sketchbook
and doodles the man sitting across her
The one with the big nose
And then she remembers

She remembers grade school
Ah! What fond memories!
Whiny children, horrible music,
and low-budget lunches
that taste like fried Barbie dolls

Snaped back to reality
She feverously wonders if there’s anything to be nostalgic about
At least now, there aren’t tiers
of stupid girls singing along
to songs by blonde teen idols

Let me tell you, dear reader, that Miss Crazy
certainly lived up to her “expectations”
She bit the hand that fed
Dissected any frog that so claimed to be a prince
And was long gone by the time her knight in shining armor finally came

But now she sits on the train,
watching as the world rotates around her,
briefly sketching small snapshots of life,
all the while sporting an impressive collection
of old sneakers and discolored sweaters

Bright purple hair peeking out under a fedora,
Miss Crazy lazily trudges through Amsterdam streets
to meet an agent who could possibly
have his higher-ups
endorse her artwork

Miss Crazy isn’t well known
her name isn’t up in bright lights
But for now,
the neighborhood kids are a big enough
fan club for her.