SMART GIRL

Montana State University

Smart Girl! is the tag she puts on the back-alley wall black lettering, measured, pretty graffiti, spray paint through a stencil. She titles the murals with an exclamation point Smart Girl! it says beneath the pigtailed woman painted by the back door of the Chinese Takeout Palace Smart Girl! For the fairy on Main’s traffic box An addendum with an s (Smart Girls!) for the mermaids beneath the bridge. Smart Girl! comes in broad daylight because she doesn’t care who catches her and it’s not a crime to write an unrefuted truth. Smart Girl! carries her paint in her left hand, uses the right to flip off cops when they switch on the blue and reds and does not run because she has done nothing wrong only informed the world that Smart Girl! is every girl and no woman should be downed for simply being she. The law tries to remove the words but Smart Girl! doesn’t wash away with a power hose or disappear beneath a coat of paint. Smart Girl! is resilient and back in black and bold

typeface. She smiles at the passersby with big teeth and open eyes watching every step because Smart Girl! is always watching even when shadows run long and lights low. Smart Girl! loves to scream and snap her jaw so fast it clacks and then parts again because she has pockets of words left to say. Smart Girl! opens her mouth and roars because she is not chained by silence.