Deciding not to go to Junior Prom

“I just want to feel
pretty,” she says through her tears.
She already is.

Ending

It happens over
coffee, one stunned, the other
already elsewhere.

Realization

She woke up seeing
him in a different light
flame sputtering out.

Because of the media

based on a poem written by M.

They say I need a
man. Chocolate. But an eye
lash curler’s enough.

original source:

I don’t need chocolate to eat or a man in my life
I just think I do
because of the media
All I really need is my eyelash curler.

Rejection

Hives. Itching. As if
her body can’t coexist
with her sense of self.

Out of wedlock

for S.

Without a ring she’s
uncertain, the baby no
guarantee he’ll stay.

Not in polite company

She talks of threesomes,
abortions, things her mother-
in-law would faint at.

Weed laced with PCP

She turned to cake, felt
herself melting, the devil
eating his way out.

Hearing herself on CD

When her voice leaves her
body, recorded, it’s a
stranger who comes out.

Project Runway

Cut pin stitch fabric
stretch confines of clothing to
become catwalk art.