mouth
Let me tell you a secret:
I have a mouth on the back of my head.
An actual, human mouth with lips and teeth and a tongue
a small, pink thing, always
chapped with neglect
no cavities, just yellowing teeth
waiting for rot.
She had braces too.
Hid her lisp with giggles
or silence
or screaming
you don’t need to use your tongue for either, see
she always finds a way to make noise.
We’ll sing together.
We both know she has a voice like
the sparking, or
the flooding, or
the fire.
(An unholy gospel or
an ode to older gods)
We both know she has a voice like the key against the car door or
the blaring alarm
a call or a warning,
(a rejected hymn) see
she always finds a way to make you listen.
She likes to feel pretty.
When I’m too embarrassed to try out the red lipstick I bought at the drugstore
she’ll wear it for me.
Laugh at my crayon lips and teach me how to
sunset my smiles into something deeper
teach me to hood my eyes
to hide my teeth
Teach me how to turn heads, see
she always finds a way to make you look.
Sometimes she says things for me.
Sometimes she says ‘me’ when they ask for my name
Sometimes she curses in front of children and talks back _______.
She’s the kind of girl who chews boys up and
spits them out and
doesn’t care if she misses the trash can.
That kind of girl.
A red-lipped
bubblegum bitch with all
bark and all
bite.
She’s never hungry but never full,
Thirsts for rain and sugar boys,
their frosting cheeks and candy hair
Wraps them around her finger like gum
sticky and sweet and inconvenient
But
treating her is rare, now.
I tell her it’s because she’ll get a cavity
Because my crush asked me why I had spaghetti in my hair
Because
feeding her lunch in a bathroom stall is lonely
Because
Sometimes
I like to feel pretty.
Once, for Halloween
I shaved my head.
They called me a monster.
Once,
I put my hair down.
A boy called me beautiful for the first time.
Once,
she bit down on her lips and left a scar
in a crescent moon or closed eye or
curved lips.
See,
she always finds a way to smile.