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Niesha Radovanic Jun 2018
why do we choose people
who make us feel anything but
whole
i am sugar crumb cookies
always left on the table
no one has ever wanted me
he has never been satisfied
he is a carnivore
always wanting more
hungry for the flesh of everyone
his appetite rockets when i’m not there
he cannot get enough sugar crumbs
he wants more
he wants all the crumbs even when they aren’t mine to offer
i am bent nails
patched hair
i cannot stop pulling my hair out
i am finger nail scrapes down my legs
he is angry
but not as angry as me
no one will know what this rage is
so let me ask you again
why do we choose people
who make us feel anything but
whole
because we allow them to let us feel anything but
whole
we think that feeling like our lungs are going to
collapse because we can’t catch our breath
is okay because we are used to it
but i’m sick and tired of finding crumbs that aren’t mine
i stand up and get the wobbling in my knees to stop
i grab the glass cookie jar and throw it on the ground
i think of leaving you a note on the counter
but i know you’ll forget
because you’ll be too busy
licking up all the sugar crumbs
that aren’t
mine
Niesha Radovanic May 2018
his scalp
is stitched
with the odor
of shampoo
and
***** secrets
and god
i have never
wanted to wash
my
hair more
i’d rather write about the freckles on your back than think about all of the ways in which you quite possibly don’t love me.

i feel sick at the very thought of you picking me apart the way you did; fingers grabbing and stroking in a catastrophic symphony of skin and vulnerability.

let’s read between each other’s lines; share my sentences and punctuate my paragraphs with your mouth; because i can breathe easier on the mornings where i wake up wrapped around you.

because my moods change like the ******* seasons and the spinning in my head doesn’t want to stop.
                                         you tell me that i should probably get a therapist because no one that thinks about all the ways in which they could **** themselves has an ounce of mental stability.
                                          i tell you that i have been to four.
                                          names faded into a blur with hazy snippets of conversation remaining.
20mg.
                    30mg.
you tell me that trust issues and scars aren’t endearing and i tell you that neither is counting up the potential number of pills needed to dissolve your body into the living room carpet.

let me sink inside your skin and make a home in your flesh;
i tell you about the nights where i lay awake in the bath turning the water red.
                       tragic, isn’t it.

you tell me that this isn’t how my head should work and i tell you that i already know. everything you could possibly tell me i already know.
i know that 400 calories a day isn’t normal, and my hands shouldn’t shake all the time.
                                             i know.
please let me stitch myself into you, even just for a while; until i no longer feel dizzy and my world stops spinning.
i don’t need you to tell me that it will be okay, because honestly i don’t think it will be and, that in itself, is okay.
                                                                ­                 let me stitch myself into you, because my own skin can’t take it anymore.

let me call you back when my voice stops wobbling and my vision straightens out, but honestly, i’m terrified that it never will. what if this is it. headaches and tears and shaking and blood.
                                             and the debilitating, gut-wrenching feeling of pure and euphoric emptiness.

                                              tragic, isn’t it.
Niesha Radovanic Feb 2018
the girl after will be
a bootlegged version
of me
she will never taste
like me and
i hope she writes
you poetry but we all know
her metaphors will never
erase the ones
i left stained on your lips
Niesha Radovanic Jan 2018
the caramel skinned girl
looked at
the brown sugar skinned boy
and said this here baby
this isn’t just a watch
this is a promise
this is me promising to
count down every minute
with you
this is promising you that
one day we will stand
at an alter
exchanging rings and vowes
and most of all exchanging
unconditional love
pablo you’re different
you’re what i’ve been
waiting for but could
never really describe
because let’s face it
it’s pretty hard to describe
perfection until you’ve met it
and on may 22nd
i met perfection
sick raspy voice and all
and i still fell for you
i’m still falling for you
everyday
this time teller
that’s clings to your wrist
represents that i will
always cling to your wrist
that i will always be there
to remind you how much
i love you
that this soul cries out at night for
her brown sugar skin metaphor
that this body always wants
to feel your hands
and your lips forever
we are going to be together
forever
the caramel skinned girl
looked at
the brown sugar skinned boy
and said this here baby
this is eternal love
Niesha Radovanic Jan 2018
i don't even know how to be sad anymore.
all i know is rage.
i know red knuckles burning because
i had to punch the kid in yellow jacket
hands
to melt the rage off of my soul
i just don’t want an angry soul
take my soul
i thought yellow was happy color.
i shouldn't have taken it out on him.
this is fingers tingling.
the bented M on the BMW sign
on my stirring shell
makes me where my anger with pride.
i shouldn't be proud that my fist got stronger.
the crack i made in the mirror in my car looks like the cracks in my rattling bones, that keep digging in the dirt in the graveyard.
why am i obsessed with
skeletons.
broken bodies and souls
need help too.
all of my cancerous thoughts
are molded to
each edge of my
gooey brain.
spilling out of my
temples making the
bottle of excedrin
open
too often
Niesha Radovanic Jan 2018
my mama always told me i would be just like her
and for some of you that's an honor
but my mama was different
oh baby you look just like your daddy
cool i look a felon
i see your attitude Niesha
it's just like mine
mama i don't want this rage
i don't want to be called your "white girl"
i didn't mean it like that Niesha
what i meant was you act "white"
mama i didn't know using manners
were the qualifications of a "white girl"
i didn't know 7 year old hands were meant to change diapers
and cook ramen
on the stove
mama what if i burn myself
draining the water
Niesha i don't know who
you're raising your voice at
this isn't your
grandmas house
no mama
i didn't mean it like that
please don't get the belt
don't cry Niesha
ill do it again
betty boop comforters
covering the welts of the
"white girl"
but i knew i needed to cover
my sister
two twin beds pushed together
separated by gray stained sheets
here Charlaye
this blanket is for you baby
Niesha get the kids ready for school
you're gonna be late
Officially Missing You by Tamia
blares in our ebony scented home
she told me never to bring ivory
in the house
mama i can’t help it
can i have braids like the other girls
Niesha you aren’t black
no mama i just want braids
i didn’t know only black girls could have braids
mama i thought i was black
flash forward
9 year old girl
woken by police sirens
man do i love the
colors
red and blue
mama they don’t have a warrant
don’t let them in
flashlights burning me and my sisters eyes
where’s the man that beat your mama
mama are you okay
her front teeth missing
now filled with a golden grill
he will never steal from us again
“white girl”
are you okay mama
Niesha get out of my face
i just wanted to see if you were okay mama
go outside and play with your cousins
no mama i don’t like them
don’t you say no to me Niesha
9 year old body bordered with bruises from boys with my blood
DONT TOUCH ME THERE TIQUECE
i didn’t know your 13 year old
hands were meant to touch
the hidden secrets under
my little pony *******
it’s okay Nie Nie
they do this in the movies
TY I don’t want to be
an actress
in your movie
DONT TOUCH ME THERE
TIQUECE
my mama always told me i would be just like her
mama i don’t wanna have an ultrasound on my swollen belly at age 15
i don’t want to spend my 16th
birthday in a mortant plate hospital room
filled with “it’s a girl” birthday balloons
but guess what mama this
“white girl”
made it past April 8th 2016
and i blew out my own
birthday candles and i wasn’t in
a hospital room.
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