in parentheses

Emily Ramser is a high school author living part-time between North Carolina and California. She has been published in a few online journals such as Spinozablue, The Crocodile Journal and Vox Poetica. She works with Impact, a local magazine as well as her own school’s newspaper.

Leaking Thoughts

I have a pimple on the back of my ear
Two fingers push it and pop it
The gunk oooooozes out

Is that white goo what I learned
In second period history last year
Or just remains of a nasty infection//memory?

I can’t help but think
That the scab is the restraints
 that
Hold my brain back 
from running away

Normality

my father eats sardines
and pickles
but my mother drinks the juice
to help her pitted skin
but her pimples still pop
their greasy spit on her chin

I help my brother draw pictures
of long arrows and short arrows
to tell time
as if we actually understood it
and learn how many apples the elephants ate
(enough to feed all the African children)
at the kitchen table,
like we’re normal

while my twin fights magical creatures
in green tights on the television screen
as if he was a hero
as if we all were heroes

Normal Mentality

my brother drinks milk and flavored water
cause he can’t stand normality
like when he waves his fingers in my face and says
“spooooooooooooooookkky”
causing his parents,
not mine, to think he has ADD
or some other mental disease.