Mouth Full of White Flags,

---

I ask permission to spit:

          a sphinx

          a barn owl

          a boy who bums a smoke

they look away           //at me//                     I hate this, I hate men yelling and not//

not knowing their danger

                              People talk about a proper time and place, but sometimes you end

                              up talking about death at a Chili’s over a plate of chicken tenders

          //and that’s just how shit goes

Most people think bodies are mannequins

when they see them where they don’t expect to

          like when you see dried-up petals

          and think someone must’ve spilled a bag of chips//

                                                                                              Can we just order a pizza

It’s always better cold and in the morning like

          light pillows sex coffee what

          have you

                                                  When I blow a man, I like to be over him

                                                                                          while he’s flat on his back

like I’m looking cautiously into a well

                                        and when I’m about to gag, I think of England

                                        and gag anyway, because that’s what you like —

because                            in a lot of ways, you’d like to watch

my head explode like a slow-motion watermelon

                    dropped from someplace very high//

But you’d also like for me to swallow the thing

like the moth larva from the bottom

of a bottle of Mezcal                                                 never give it back

          Wake up. There’s a rapist on the loose.

          Pushed a woman into her apartment as she unlocked it.