"Blue Is the Warmest Colour Can Kiss My Ass" by Gabrielle Grace Hogan

yr stupid body of clipped wings & carbohydrates—i wish poems
would get over bodies already—yr stupid dirt-knuckled grip
on the steering wheel—could jerk sharp to the right & spray into chrome
like a bird beneath a bullet—not that u ever would—it becomes easy to joke abt
when it’s trendy—when everyone’s doing it—does listening to Phoebe Bridgers
make me a good lesbian—does wearing XL Hawaiian dad-shirts
from Savers—does buying miniature versions of everything in my kitchen—
it’s against the rules to admit—but i’ve already lost—but i don’t want to be
Brave anymore—i only want to put my hand up a skirt after
her cheer practice—wrap my tongue in glossy cherry finish—
i’m tired of parades—floats of marketable rainbow & cops—i want to skip
that crap—meet her under the bleachers—clutch a hair’s butter-yellow
fistful—swallow a vowel—this isn’t a sex poem but isn’t it—i write a lot
abt sex for someone who hates having it—who’d rather never be touched
again—i wish i could fuck the way movies say i do—acrylics spinal tapping—
a girl rutting against a girl in the growing dark—carnal & masculine, ruby
throats cocked like a pelican gulping—legs split like wounds—fat slapping
of vulvas—back in Missouri, i stunted a growth w/ my longing—it’s not u
baby it’s my inability to allow any emotional intimacy to manifest thru
a physical one—yr stupid body of metaphors & malpractice—don’t u ever say
i can’t trade a name for 1000 more years of life—i’ll make a thick choking
sound—i’ll tie a lover to the baseboards—leave her there to drown

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Gabrielle Grace Hogan is a poet from St. Louis, MO. She is a current MFA candidate at the University of Texas at Austin where she is the Poetry Editor of Bat City Review and Co-Editor of You Flower/You Feast, an online anthology inspired by the music of Harry Styles. Her work has appeared in The Academy of American Poets, Nashville Review, Kissing Dynamite, Passages North, and elsewhere. Her debut chapbook, Soft Obliteration, is now available through Ghost City Press. More can be found on her website gabriellegracehogan.com.