my hair stays on your pillow like a question mark
by Melissa Lozada-Oliva
skinny white girl with a sugar skull tattoo says:
no offense melissa?? but i know when you’ve been around ?? because your hair gets all over everything?? & no offense but it kind of grosses me out?? if you come into my apartment can you just please be aware of that?? imagine being as gross as u fear?? imagine the things that shed from you turning into something that survives the apocalypse?? the scientists trapping it in a plastic container ?? putting a bunch of nuclear science waves on it?? it surviving but coming out with two more heads?? or I don’t know, is that how it works?? imagine your hairs as daddy long legs crawling up the shower curtain?? daddy’s long legs??daddy’s dark legs??daddy’s hairy dark legs?? imagine you are what makes the white girls in a brooklyn apartment scream?? except deep down??you want to be a white girl in a brooklyn apartment??screaming??following her dreams?? there is not a white part inside of you or maybe there is?? if so what do you do with it?? do you spray it with windex?? trap it under a paper cup?? find the right shoe?? find the right man?? & then what does he do??? with the body?? |
Melissa Lozada-Oliva is a touring poet and educator based in Boston. She has been featured in Bustle, Huffington Post, Paste Magazine, The Guardian, and her mom's Facebook statuses. She is VONA alumn and an MFA candidate at NYU. Her poems in this issue of Muzzle will appear in her forthcoming chapbook, Peluda, which is available for pre-order from Button Poetry.