D.I.E. McKinley is the 3rd place prize winner of the Spring 2021 Sad Girls Club Poetry Contest
I see my mother in my mouth
The way it pouts, top lip a sinking ship
Into a rosy tide
Spilling secrets, snide and jeering
I know her sneer when I see it
Her mouth in the mirror
Shaping sounds of my full name
The one I couldn’t hear for years
The name I had to learn to love
I had to learn to love me
A split in the lip, a changed personality
A wry grin making a heart
It’ll tell you it loves you
But I never did
I tell you because I’d like to hear it
If I let her, she’ll use our mouth
Speaking for me, manipulating all
The words she tastes
Kissing all the boys I hate
I’ll seal it shut
Let her tear the skin apart
Watch her drink blood
Watch her choke on crimson in reflection
Maybe then she’ll finally be quiet
When she’s rendered me silent.
D.I.E. McKinley is a young, nonbinary poet from suburban Detroit, always working on one novel or another.
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