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This poem is full of uncomfortable topics, and I love it for that.
Reading All the Ads in the Back of Magazines
You fold two loads of laundry.
Your hands, once split by heat,
are now calloused, invincible.
You sit at your kitchen table,
masturbate next to a half-eaten bowl of cereal-
swollen clouds floating in pink sugar milk.
You stand in your living room
turn off the television, glare at the
reflection of your thickened hips,
wipe your hand across the screen
tearing through static.
A garbage truck roars outside your window.
You watch the barrels spit out the unwanted-
exhausted light bulbs and soggy cabbage,
a doll’s torso bruised by crayons.
You press your hand against the glass, shock
at how the morning’s cold presses back,
how even calluses do not deny
this pointed chill.
It is in this moment that you see yourself.
First, spot your left arm, pale blue stiff
and reaching. It tumbles with empty milk cartons
and a dead hamster zipped in plastic.
You see your heart waddle
like a damaged plum as it drops against
your breasts now sticky with syrup.
You watch your blood crumble and fall
like day-old rice, your face,
thin and jagged, slides from
the barrel like an oiled mask.
You turn away, once you recognize
the sound of your legs slamming
against the truck like twin corpses.
This.
This is when you realize –
you should have kept his number,
should have stayed after he kissed you
so hard it split your lip
when he chewed your nipple through
your sweater and you nearly fainted
by the shock white charge of it,
when he ripped your stockings
grabbing your thighs, when you felt
his fingers move inside you
as if searching a coat pocket.
This is why the price tag still swings
from your wedding dress, why you cannot
fuck your husband with eyes open,
why you dunk your child’s head too long
while rinsing his hair.
This is why permanence terrifies,
why your spine threatens to tear out
and run, why you do not own pets
but keep cages
this is how you haunt your own house,
why your hands coil in hunger
and why the sound of screaming tires
burning away in the night
is the only song
that ever puts you to sleep.
~Rachel McKibbens
I actually needed to be doing other things like finishing my club adviser plans and taking a shower. Some days are harder than others to find motivation. True story.
Reading All the Ads in the Back of Magazines
You fold two loads of laundry.
Your hands, once split by heat,
are now calloused, invincible.
You sit at your kitchen table,
masturbate next to a half-eaten bowl of cereal-
swollen clouds floating in pink sugar milk.
You stand in your living room
turn off the television, glare at the
reflection of your thickened hips,
wipe your hand across the screen
tearing through static.
A garbage truck roars outside your window.
You watch the barrels spit out the unwanted-
exhausted light bulbs and soggy cabbage,
a doll’s torso bruised by crayons.
You press your hand against the glass, shock
at how the morning’s cold presses back,
how even calluses do not deny
this pointed chill.
It is in this moment that you see yourself.
First, spot your left arm, pale blue stiff
and reaching. It tumbles with empty milk cartons
and a dead hamster zipped in plastic.
You see your heart waddle
like a damaged plum as it drops against
your breasts now sticky with syrup.
You watch your blood crumble and fall
like day-old rice, your face,
thin and jagged, slides from
the barrel like an oiled mask.
You turn away, once you recognize
the sound of your legs slamming
against the truck like twin corpses.
This.
This is when you realize –
you should have kept his number,
should have stayed after he kissed you
so hard it split your lip
when he chewed your nipple through
your sweater and you nearly fainted
by the shock white charge of it,
when he ripped your stockings
grabbing your thighs, when you felt
his fingers move inside you
as if searching a coat pocket.
This is why the price tag still swings
from your wedding dress, why you cannot
fuck your husband with eyes open,
why you dunk your child’s head too long
while rinsing his hair.
This is why permanence terrifies,
why your spine threatens to tear out
and run, why you do not own pets
but keep cages
this is how you haunt your own house,
why your hands coil in hunger
and why the sound of screaming tires
burning away in the night
is the only song
that ever puts you to sleep.
~Rachel McKibbens
I actually needed to be doing other things like finishing my club adviser plans and taking a shower. Some days are harder than others to find motivation. True story.
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