Nadia Thompson
Adolescence
Yellow-green buds gather like school yard girls,
high upon a branch tip above houses
then falling to the concrete yard.
Castoffs no one wants to see.
Discarded youths of every generation
are swept to the streets
to be crushed by tires and tired feet.
Yet there are those who graduate
into broad green leaves
and offer shade to men
they have never known or wish to know.