BODY IMAGE Poem: Puberty, by Rafael Jacobs-Perez

Google says that it can last
For up to five years on average
Beginning between the ages
Of eleven and sixteen
The latest it will run its course
When a late bloomer turns 21

Hit by a Mack truck
Square in the chest
At eleven, fourth grade
Growing inches in a year
BO and sweat stains
And my very own puberty stache
Bu that was just the begging
Of the hair

At twenty-one
I am still growing hairs
New places all over my body
Curly black shoots
Sprouting on my shoulder
Like trees with not enough water
To go around, spaced out
On my lower and upper back
Beginning to grow forests
A bayou by my ass

A ridiculous prank
On Gods part
I commend your sense of humor
But who the hell grows
Hair on their shoulders
And no one in their right mind
Meant this when they said
They were looking for someone cozy,

I stopped growing
Four years ago
Have had a full beard
For so long
That college friends don’t know
What my face looks like
And yet its still growing
They never warned you
Puberty would never stop
Just a small thing left out
Of seven years of health class

I’ve seen the dads and grandpas
At the pool, real life bigfoots
Hair like a second coat
My Puerto Rian Jewish ancestry
A hairy one indeed
Is starting to worry me
I shiver at my potential fate
And I pray that puberty
Will be in the past at 22