“New Orleans’ Girl” street art by Banksy.

(Or, Banksy’s New Orleans’ Girl)

If her dress were purple and her cheeks were pink, if
a smile curled the edges of her plump lips, if
she held a book or a violin or a baseball glove, if
her face wasn’t full of what she’d seen, if
she believed that the rain would stop, if
she was laughing or dancing or singing, if
she didn’t look half-drowned, all-wild, if
she were any other girl on any other building—
—she wouldn’t belong to us.

Amber Weyland teaches high school English in Roanoke, Virginia. She is an MFA candidate in Writing at Lindenwood University, and she holds a Master’s in English from Radford University and a Bachelor’s in English from Virginia Tech. She is currently in the midst of moving to New Orleans, Louisiana where she plans to continue writing and teaching English.