The princess shaves her armpits
Everyday because if she doesn’t
The people will whisper
About the dark stains under her arms
Whenever she fixes her crown

If I sketched an angel without wings
would you be able to tell
she’s an angel?
The sky behind her would be pale yellow
The world below, gray
Like the color of the outline of her frame
I’d describe her face as angelic
Which is supposed to give it away
But maybe you’d only say she looks nice

I don’t know how to dance
Never learned
Never thought I’d need to know
So you led me, gently, at first
We started out simple and easy
like a bite of sponge cake
A one and two and three and four and
It felt good to glide across the linoleum floor
Light as a feather
Like I weighed nothing at all

There is a doll in
a little brick house
with satin tights
and her shirt tucked in
and she is smiling
because the machine
that made her
carved a smile into
her plastic head.

Blue bear
with golden teeth -
He took a bite from my neck
when I wasn’t looking.
I looked at him then
and he smiled at me.
I saw pieces of my flesh
in his golden teeth.

Four limbs
Branching from a peach tree
My skin is a shield
My fat is fuel
A vessel for my weary soul
I will let it carry me

O'clock O clock
It rings and rings
The faucet drips
A kettle sings

O'clock Clock in
It coughs and beep
The keyboards clack
A cubicle weeps

O'clock Clock out
Cough again beep
The sirens whine
A child sleeps

O'clock O clock
It rings and rings
The faucet drips
A kettle sings