Still

I am the candy pink gum on the shelf

Discerning, alluring

That you purchase

Without thinking

With a watermelon scent

that is pleasantly chalked

Reminiscent of summertime

and the innocence of day-camp

You unfold the origami of my wrapper

Break me in two

Put me in your mouth and chew

Chew

Chew

Used up and spat out

left on the pavement

Like a gold mine

Stripped and waiting

To once more be excavated

But unlike gold

I am not fragile,

Rather malleable

I am the paled pink gum

You find under your shoe

Rugged, once soft

Before being chewed

And despite the injustice

And the loss of pigmentation

I remain a discarded object

Of self-preservation

Paled pink

Yet pink,

Still