Ashley

Written for ABC Wednesday

Ashley

Ashley begins to look foreign to me,

Her "A" clearly outgrew all the other letters in her name

And what is a “shley” anyway?

It must be some weird kind of snail

with a yellow shell or something of the sort.

Contorted letters pull their tails in opposite directions

only to free themselves of bond that the English culture placed them in

Even now the sight of the word burns my eyes

and I must cover them with my fingertips

to regain my sense of balance.

Ashley?

I have been summoned

Are you her?

Is she you?

No.

Who is she then?

She is a petite blonde girl

who led the cheerleading squad in high school

and kissed her boyfriend Brad on the lips every single day

she wore short shirts

and was never really nice to anyone anyway

but she thought highly of herself most of time

at least until graduation

She disappeared for a while after then

never to be heard from

until the day she popped up again

at a successful law firm

and no one around her had doubted for a second

that she had made it there thanks to daddy’s money alone.

Oh.

Yes that is she.

The asker walks away satisfied

and I mumble to myself.

But she is also a very tiny piece of me.