Purples in the sky
Lily Ross
The mosquitoes
lick my hairy
legs with their
yellow tongues
when it’s golden
hour and I’m
trying to journal
or some shit.
I itch my left
foot on its
left side and
little white
flowers
drown in the
sun’s wet skin.
Red shorts
say bold,
casual,
unopposed to
homosexual
activity. Some
trees look
green and
others look
gentle, and my
skin is peeling
tic tac toes
every time
I lay outside for
too long or
think about the
way your
perhaps
cooks itself
into my letting go.
When was a
poem
supposed to
make sense,
when does
personificatio
n stink like
my
dirty kitchen–
cleaned in the
morning,
soiled by 8pm.
There’s a
spider in your
fresh
orange juice and
it’s turning pale
and pink by the
minute. There’s
a squirrel
hanging
upside
down, blank
teeth
clacking in
your stomach.
Your stomach
deep throats
its own
ah-hems
every time a
teenage girl
fights a
motorcycle in
the hours before
the wind takes
shape.
Shapes shift
from smooth
circles to
swift ovals,
pouring cool
sidewalk
cracks
in-between
your eyes
and
stretching
out towards
the
purples in
the sky.
lick my hairy
legs with their
yellow tongues
when it’s golden
hour and I’m
trying to journal
or some shit.
I itch my left
foot on its
left side and
little white
flowers
drown in the
sun’s wet skin.
Red shorts
say bold,
casual,
unopposed to
homosexual
activity. Some
trees look
green and
others look
gentle, and my
skin is peeling
tic tac toes
every time
I lay outside for
too long or
think about the
way your
perhaps
cooks itself
into my letting go.
When was a
poem
supposed to
make sense,
when does
personificatio
n stink like
my
dirty kitchen–
cleaned in the
morning,
soiled by 8pm.
There’s a
spider in your
fresh
orange juice and
it’s turning pale
and pink by the
minute. There’s
a squirrel
hanging
upside
down, blank
teeth
clacking in
your stomach.
Your stomach
deep throats
its own
ah-hems
every time a
teenage girl
fights a
motorcycle in
the hours before
the wind takes
shape.
Shapes shift
from smooth
circles to
swift ovals,
pouring cool
sidewalk
cracks
in-between
your eyes
and
stretching
out towards
the
purples in
the sky.