“AutoSuggest”
Dude | Due | Duende
day | to | marrow
the | habitual | addiction
unwanted | sexual | ,
assault | harassment | ,
and | on | through
the | Facebook | a
. | , | Fuck
Twitter | I | don’t
want | do | wait
no | not | to
have | accept | reject
the | random | cookies
. | friend | ,
. | requests | ,
or | from | .
revolting | strange | sensual
. | men | ,
and | . | &
Please | Have | .
taken | a | fun
great | nice | bite
day | night | fuck
slut | . | score
[Block]
“Seamstress”
The rotary cutter is nicked
A flat spot where metal snapped
under the weight of my hand—
Maybe I paid for something, damaged,
but it keeps the threads around it intact—
Every time I roll over the odd geometry of clothes
I second-snip with sheers—
Measurements are a nip-tuck against my skin
form fitting into expectations
of the man on the bus—
and how my knee bumped his
when he opened his legs wide
and gulped space
“Cassandra”
Safety glass doesn’t slice, but enough pressure—
a fireball bursting from a faulty pilot light—
can singe the hair off your arm, eat your eyebrow,
scald your cheek with your own sweat.
Safety glass transforms the sharp
of a knife into the blunt of a paper punch,
pressing into the corner of your flame-bit right eye
instantaneously
An explosion became a blink, became a scratch, became an infection over her adamant protests.
Canvas aprons make young baristas look professional—
iron-crisp edges, hours of training—
An HR program does more than inspire politeness,
it requires friendliness, Smile, girl. Smile
for me. Its retail’s policy, not harassment; and,
it waters down authenticity in the name of brand
image until the customer orders
his Americano-Scalding Joe concoction,
burns his tongue and says,
“Look what you made me do!” Fire-In-The-Hole! She goes to the hospital.
Her curse was having to listen as Erik
repeated her words to the ringing of unearned accolades
in an imperfect sentiment
He explained her own ideas to her.
Never met a nuance he liked
enough to invite to the conversation.
Renamed her Bossy for reclaiming her time,
and denying him; but, he said he “liked a challenge”
Shame
It’s so easy to buy the battery acid he hurled in reply
Cassandra’s curse was that no matter how many times she told the truth—
no one would listen without an interpreter.