I'm sorry Mother but I'll paint my lips
Plum Sky, Medieval Blush, Flirty Nude,
Spring Rose, BonBon Sands and even the shade
you hate the most--my NARS lip stain in Rage.
But I'm not wearing these lips to kiss the mouth
of some man and write my number on his hand.
You try to wipe my lips with a tissue but
no I’ll kiss my own hand first and look
at the imprint that settles into my skin.
I’ll read those fine lines like scoring the Bible pages,
I’ll flip through those onion thin verses
and show you the name Jezebel does not appear.
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YOU GO GIRL
ReplyDeletefavorite technical part: that the capitalized Nude and Rage both end lines. I would suggest playing out the relation by splitting the poem into quatrains.
ReplyDeletei think you can get rid of 'no' and go right into the action of kissing your hand.
i like the Bible parts, for all you angsted over it, but like 'Jezebel' less.... maybe just because it occurs at the end. i wonder what it would do to the poem to leave it nameless, something like 'show you whose names do no appear.' just a thought.
2/2 with lips poems in your career, nina.
Re:Tim's comment, I dunno; I think the last line would lose its sassiness if you took Jezebel out.
ReplyDeleteRe:Tim's comment, I dunno; I think the last line would lose its sassiness if you took Jezebel out.
ReplyDelete