too negative (english)
I was a kid other kids’
parents gossiped about.
They told their children
what I was: too negative.
I get it. Fair to fear
contagion of bad attitudes,
to think naming a thing
can be an inoculation.
Of course my friends
filled me in. Of course
I took my diagnosis
lying down on mostly
frozen sand. Loose
grains made their way
to my scalp. Stayed there
for a few thousand years.