Crowd Crush
Rent from DeepDyve- Crowd Crush
I need to start being honestwith my constituents—the mirror
and hemlock, the just barely partedblinds and, behind them,
my naked body in its easy laborsof making
coffee and sighing heavily.I dare someone to accidentally
glimpse my nudepantomime of minding my own
business. Sometimes I've got to be angry to be inthe mood for being
angry. Some people would releasea sex tape
before their taxes. How do Iaccount for the bottom line
of my booty I have to look overmy shoulder to see
in the mirror? Or the clutch in my gut everytime I see his hands, strong
in their aching, flex absentmindedly whenhe
writes something down? Every time I seeher bottom lip so swollen [End Page 126]
that her lipstick prints upside-down on her chin,
I want to take impressionsof the Times with silly putty,
the news suddenlyraw [ ] stuc
[ ] msirorret,a truth I'd stretch—
if I could get awaywith it without laughing. [End Page 127]
Emilia Phillips is the author of three poetry collections from the University of Akron Press, most recently Empty Clip (forthcoming 2018) and Groundspeed (2016). Her poems and lyric essays appear widely in literary publications, including Agni, Boston Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, and elsewhere. She is an Assistant Professor in the MFA Writing Program and the Department of English at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
