into the jungle [a book of poems]

nineteen

go ask ------ if i care.

ask her if she'll let you

slip inside while you're at it;

tell her that you love her

two weeks in.

you're too rough and

the polaroids you took

left me with black

tiger stripe bruises on

my sarasota gold tinted thighs.

everyone i've talked to,

everyone who knows you,

warned me that you were a creep.

but how could a darling angel

turn out to be such a freak?

you're suffocating like his

smoldering cigarette smoke

and you choke me out with

your big macho paw just

the same way he did last december.

i am not a possession;

i belong to no one and

i surely don't belong to

a tall, lanky creep like you.

do you hear me?

i'm a young teenage girl with

ribbons in my hair and bright

white ruffled socks pressed

into the carpet; have you

forgotten that little fact?

you were all to eager to pummel

my juvenile cherry pie raw,

but you were only ever focused

on your singular, deviant,

carnally charged pleasure.