I’d Be a Whole Lot Prettier if I Smiled Once in a While

I must become a menace to my enemies. – June Jordan

from now on everything caught underneath noosing through your belly you didn’t bury
my gazeheat is mine I’ve tried your waiting me deep enough I’m living hunger degloved
your demure the jelly-glazed softness and to dizzied ruin an ecstatic miasma thrashed
found it lacking don’t confuse my bones’ into outer darkness I refuse to keloid over my
quiet for anything but honey-soaked decoy trip-wired body instead glorify tending this
I’m Lazarus-soured the devout bezoar oyster knife and the pale horse of my name

SIMONE PERSON

Simone Person is a Black queer femme and two-time Pink Door Writing Retreat fellow. She is the author of Dislocate, the prose winner of the 2017 Honeysuckle Press Chapbook Contest, and Smoke Girl, the poetry winner of the 2018 Diode Editions Chapbook Contest. Simone grew up in small Michigan towns and Toledo, Ohio. She can be found at simoneperson.com.