I wield stories in my body
like so many knives on a
butcher’s block
I am chilly and distant
but also lush and abundant
mercurial watermelon heart
somewhere inside my body
is hot summer asphalt
to burn the soles or
melt soft serve ice cream
I release your clothes into warm water
the dye bleeds making murky circles
distorted vision of violet
This golden failure
spoken viciousness
Shhh…
I lay in bed thinking indigo thoughts
the ocean doesn’t feel shame for being cold
the desert doesn’t feel shame for being scolding
I take a hot shower
wipe the mirror of fog
smear my reflection into
something abstract and bleary
maybe even
corrected.
Kiara Nicole Letcher is the author of Scream Queen (The Orchard Street Press, 2019). Spinning lush imagery with magic and horror, she explores shame, want, and growth. Her first full length collection, Oxblood, is forthcoming, (Agape Editions, 2024). Her work has appeared in Green Mountains Review, Plainsongs Magazine, Adelaide Magazine, Alice Says Go Fuck Yourself, Quiet Diamonds and Sad Girls Club and is forthcoming in South Dakota Review. She resides in Omaha, Nebraska. She received her MFA from The University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2014.
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