
This selection, chosen by Managing Editor Krista Cox, is from Salt Body Shimmer by Aricka Foreman, released by YesYes Books in 2019.
FEAR LEAVES BEHIND ITS OWN LIE
content warning for sexual assault
It wasn’t that bad
He wasn’t quick Was slow,
and the cane creak sticks
He didn’t finish In a dream
had you touch him where Grits were stirred
It was a Saturday morning It was summer
Season for running He said after
Titties gettin’ big You dreamed it
The hallway Pressed your hair between two hot metal plates
Bathroom suffocated by sweet stink
He stood inside the doorway You stood together in the dark
backyard of the dream He’s dead now
Who’s Side Is It Anyway Grass megawatt as the moon
Who sings to you from the deep
Oil cracks, sizzles Pastel peels Dreams
him inside the doorways
Now you’re grown in the car toward
another late bar shift
After little sleep You dream again and don’t
know the truth The expert on NPR says
Fear leaves behind its own scent He reached for you
It wasn’t him who tried your mother
You learn later but can’t tell the difference
A friend says over your birthday dinner
You want chicken or steak Get Over It Who ain’t been raped
You want to spit Sometimes it’s not Him but him
This ain’t about desire so let’s stop talking
It’s a bbq, lighten up Everything’s alright
Ribs on the grill, turning, tender Which picked herbs
to suture? He points toward the yard,
There, a gold fountain In the dream he knows what he means
A good man will kill for his, erect
A monument You can’t run around with no bra on
You can’t run Around it was quick ,
the turning Tinder Tender The dream creaks
Primes the season for stirred mornings
Fear leaves us behind It owns some kind of lie

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