by Laura Whelton

Deep, unreserved blooms of all of this inside of me-

I knew what it was to be a woman,

full and wanting,

engorged, bleeding, signifier of lust,

heaving, sexual, invitation only-

answer to it all.

I thought if I could have just one hour, 

then the uncontrolled hunger would abate-

surges over, waves of need.

I thought: if only.

No amount of foreplay could tame the beast,

rising like bruised heat on a Saturday night.

Vodka induced, numb, birth less encounters,

when all I wanted was you.

Inside, 

outside,

everywhere.

Restless, moving, never getting anywhere,

staged upheavals of pretending to be loved,

another day and I will just get by.