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dancing girl press, 2013
$7.00 |
Nikia Chaney is a poet from the Inland Empire of California. She is author of another chapbook, Sis Fuss (2012, Orange Monkey Publishing). She is also founding editor of shufpoetry, an online journal for experimental poetry, and an associate poetry editor for Inlandia: A Literary Journal, a journal for regional literature. She teaches at San Bernardino Valley College.
passively, with known intent
lie to him, listen
to the hummingbirds, lay
in bed a bit longer, laugh
and pretend to hate the smell
of heat give over the thought of this
call as just another sex
call, cut acacias into squares
and put petal fitted sheets
on the bed, ripped,
down the middle his open wallet
wall yourself in silk strips
of slow dripping water, and forget
to tell him that the dead fake baby,
the twitching bird in your palm, the biting
grass, the price the peace
was rehearsed, for he is king
and your rest is in the cut
of your eyes, the flail of your mascara
running all the way down and up
inside of you, as you stare, so passively
with known intent, a pretty girl
in a picture in the sand