A shaved-in side part
arrives with a new woman
who should not be there

The group slackens jaws
the music says he is wrong
spray tan mimics me

Side part says something
mumbles can only mean shame
but I’ve known that face

The host bites her lip
knits her eyebrows together
waiting for ratings

A woman’s dead eyes
rimming red with syrup tears
digests this reveal

She feels like sobbing
the way you wail on your mom
filling voids with sound

She exhales instead
adjusts her bikini string
smooths hair extensions

Inflated lips spread
like piped icing on a cake
no trace of her grief

She breathes a small laugh
girls like me don’t stay single
a secret mourning

Not Your Mom's Birds and the Bees

Listen, kid. Sometimes when a man and a woman two people love each other they start sending each other memes and TikToks. They learn each other’s attachment styles and try not to forget them when anger tracks its muddy shoes through the house. They post each other in mysterious soft-launching parts: a bit of forearm, a turned back, a side profile in complete shadow. Sometimes when a man and a woman two people love each other they take love language quizzes and then try until the bitter end to be fluent in something so far from their own mother tongue. Sometimes when a man and a woman two people love each other they hold on even after the love is gone because rent is cheaper that way. They become passing ships, never realizing how long they have been drifting away from the shore. Sometimes when a man and a woman two people love each other they become a flame, burning anything that threatens them. Everything pelted their way becomes mere fodder for their heat. But listen, kid. Sometimes when a man and a woman two people love each other, it’s like trying to keep a match lit in the wind.

July 21, 2025