And the cigarettes paint our teeth yellow Like the coffee and tea We bathe our bones in.
Poems scrawled out in chicken scratch On snow white wrists While the spiders under my skin dance A forbidden 8-legged tango.
Scars paler than my pigment stand out on my thighs That are not unlike thunder. My ribs press up against my torso, A jail cell.
Once again the panic sets in And I am taken hostage. It feels as if my lungs took a voyage on the Titanic. I named the left one Jack, The right one Rose. The right one always lives. The cold creeps in Followed by shouts from the audience “Theres room for two on that door!” But its too late. Good ol’ lefty is already gone. Sunk to the bottom of the ocean Along with all my journals.
The teenaged feminists bare their fangs And I smile. So happy to see solidarity. Blood drips from their teeth. **** the pig. Slit his throat. A female Lord of the Flies.
He smiled at me from across the room. Or maybe he smiled to the girl next to me. She is prettier than me And probably smarter And easier to deal with. I am stubborn and She looks like the type of girl to lay down her guns. I have got to stop thinking this way.
Metaphors and similes unravel on my tongue. I mumble into the microphone something about Not knowing what I should be feeling. Should I feel happy Because I survived while others, Who have gone through way worse, Are stuck under miles of dirt? Should I feel empty Because he took the very last of me And he doesn’t even care? Should I let the apathy set in again Like rigor mortis? Should I Should I Should I
I have got to stop using repetition to fill in the empty spaces Between my words. And I have got to stop staying up until 3 am And complaining about how no one will love me Because I am so difficult And stubborn And indecisive And anxious And ******. And I have got to stop tearing myself down Like a once beautiful, now broken building. I write about self love a lot. I should practice what I preach.
Where was I? I don’t even know. All I know is The spiders have broken out in a full on dance battle And the cigarette smoke is curling In my one lung, The one named Rose. And my feminist friends eye my hairy legs And whisper about ******. And the solidarity breaks apart. And my scars start to tear open again And oh no, There goes a spider. And the boys make fun of my thighs And I shatter like the glass I am
And I open a new journal. And I write another poem.