Sexy Zebra
Virginia Carraway Stark

Laying like a sexy zebra
I didn’t get no sleep
I was thinking heavy thoughts
About love and sex and death and life
And all those other things
That keep us zebras up at night
I wasn’t able to close my eyes
Without hearing a crashing roar
And waking up with tears on my cheeks
For all the lost and lonely times
I longed for hands around my shoulders
I was thinking in black and white
Did you know that zebras start out black?
And that they only get their white stripes
As they grow up on their way?
In the same way I was thinking dark thoughts
I was wishing for things that could never be
Fragments that make me much more complicated
Than I ever wished I had to be
All I ever wanted was to love
to be loved
I never wanted to cry in the night
But like a little zebra
Growing into my white stripes
I became a little bit less sad
Because I thought
and… I think… about the love I gave
…the love I give
…the love was always there
No matter what others think
About the zebra big or small
And if they think that zebras come conceived
In stripes from the start of them all
I know that I love
That love is all I know
That the fragments that shard and break
And hurt those barefoot who walk around
I am hidden for survival
I am in love with light
Even when I have to hide in the shadows
From the big bad predators
That still stalk and walk
To this day
Sexy zebra
Not enough sleep
But hell; I always look good enough to eat