FINDING COOL

there once was a witch
who thought, “to be cool,
you have to be bad”
(she was taught this in school!)

her friends had no problem
being ugly and mean
they told her to “scare”
and “curse” and “haunt dreams”

she tried to be scary,
but it did not go well
she crunched up her face
but was still, cute as hell

she tried hard to curse
(she had heard all the words!)
but mother had taught her
to sing like a bird

she was no good at haunting,
her ghost friends would say,
she just “wasn’t scary--
no predator, to prey.”

she felt like a failure,
and finally gave in
she didn’t want to be good
but couldn’t help it, in the end

her dream of being cool
did (finally!) come to pass
not by being bad,
but being herself--to the last

(28 lines)