If This is Love
you love me
like a getaway car/an extra foot of rope/the single phone call/a life
jacket/what i mean
is/you love the way that i am/always ready to save you/that
i will get my hands dirty knees
bloodied
everything bruised/so you don’t have too/i don’t ask what you are willing to do for
me/the answer is nothing in comparison/& so i lean into the fire come away singed &
scented/& so i dive into the deep end come up near drowned & weak & so i place my body
in front of/the bullet/moving
train/fist/disappointment/& come up missing/but love is precious/
a gift/coveted/
for what?
if this is love i don’t want it.
if this is love, keep it until it spoils,
then pour it down the drain. flush away any remnants with hot water and the juice of a lemon to kill
what
lingers.
there is nothing
good to come of this.
IF this is love/which i doubt because could so many people truly vouch for this/ toss it into the fire, and the fire into the void
and the void into an infinite loop
of not today satan!
don’t want it. i don’t want any of it. instead,
love me shotgun in the getaway car.
love me clinging to the end of the rope with you.
love me in the holding cell beside yours.
love me with our breaths held, and everything sinking
except us.
I Go into Her Mouth
as a harvest
come out a muddy sunset, ripped vine leaves, and skin too soft to touch.
there has never been a time where her tongue
left me sweeter than it found me.
she is all teeth
i turn pulp between her gums.
bite my own tongue until the pain begets
a moan she’ll believe.
she spits me out, a handful of seeds,
a whole field of me at her feet,
parched.
i do not know what i am supposed to become now,
i resemble kicked up dust in the wind storm of her,
when her mouth moves on to the next crop.
i wonder,
is this how deserts are conceived?
picked clean,
between the cheeks of a greedy oasis
In Response to Cee-Lo Green’s Analogy of Rape & Robbed Houses
In 2014 Cee-Lo Green Tweeted:
(1)When someone brakes (sic) on (sic) a home there is broken glass where is your plausible proof anyone was raped
(2) Women who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!
(3) If someone is passed out they’re not even WITH you consciously! so WITH Implies consent.
Mr green, it’s come to my attention that you think rape
and robbed houses have something in common.
I mean yeah, I guess.
In one scenario you’ll find broken glass, smudged fingerprints, boot marks,
disarray in general.
In the other someone can file
a property insurance claim.
Oh wait, was that not your point?
Were you trying to say that a robbed house
has a better testimony than a raped body
simply because the broken shards of a raped body
are swept into the linen closet instead of all over the good god damned rug?
Does it make you uncomfortable,
the way I say raped body with such ease?
Know what makes me uncomfortable? Men accused of drugging women,
having non consensual sex with them
followed by daring said women
to provide plausible proof.
Prove your rape
dear one-out-of-every-three woman!
Grab the folds of your vagina
and shake them like the ends of a rug
you’re trying to rid of glass remnants, sweat
& filth clinging like foreign pubic hair
onto your flesh.
Maybe if you do a good enough job
cleaning up some intruders mess
no one will notice the blood of you
on the edge of the floorboard, maybe
they won’t hear your staggered breathing
echoing beneath the door bell.
Maybe. Mr green, I see the woman
perched there-on your shoulder, her throat slowly working
the settlement agreement down,
her consent along for a scalding ride.
But this isn’t about her, that
brave one-out-of-every-three woman.
This is about you Mr. Green and the way
the words prove it hangs like a rogue flea market halo above your head.
You think you’ve won? Your kind always does.
You’ve got a fan base of your word
against hers.
Talk show appearances with hosts
like Steve Harvey who make it seem
like it’s been so hard for you.
Has it? Been hard for you?
Has your neighborhood seemed a little more cautious these days?
Word going around there’s a robber on the loose?
Breaking into anything that looks
like no one would believe it was broken into?
Breaking into anything that looks like it won’t remember?
Breaking into anything that stands close enough
to be mistaken as with you & therefore implies consent?
Listen, I won’t try to force you
to do something you don’t want to
(for instance, admitting you’re a worthless waste of space)
it’s just that I want to help you do something
you wouldn’t ordinarily do if, you know, you had
all your wits about you.
Mr. Green, shall I have mercy on you?
Shall I place the pill on the tablecloth beside your full cup
& afford you the choice your accuser wasn’t?
Mr. Green, it has come to my attention
that you think consent & rape have nothing in common
I mean, yeah, I guess...if you’re like...
a rapist.