A man tells me to keep my mouth closed and i bloom something ugly
Rent from DeepDyve- A man tells me to keep my mouth closed and i bloom something ugly
girl,don't you know you'll catch fliesif you keep gaping like that hellmouth wide,if you keep your teeth out waiting to snatch them midair—
do you think they could smell the death on you
don't you know girls are supposed to be soft, gentle things, flowersdo you remember the rafflesia / corpse flower blooms ugly red, reeks of carrion, sits, open mawed, waitingfor the flies to land
& is it coincidence the bloom lasts just days / before the scent stops beingmasquerade / and the decay becomes a tangible thing
& is it coincidence that a corpse flower has no stem / leaves / roots /chlorophyll / to call its own / is barely able to be called plant / is forcedto live as parasite, unable to feed itself
& is it coincidence that this is the world's largest flower / the one to takeup the most space / with all its unpretty
& is it coincidence that you have always / had a rot in your stomach /have always been something just barely girl / have always spread yourselfwider / than you were supposed to
don't you want to be pretty, girl? don't you want green leaves and yellow petals, girl? didn't you use to dream of daisies and tulips? [End Page 36]
don't you know red isn't your color anyway?
still, you are growing yourself into rafflesia / do you think this is why your mother gave you her face & a working jaw?for you to become reeking, stinking, flapped o p e n—
don't you know bound chests and packed pants smell just the same as corpse flower? [End Page 37]
Lip Manegio is a queer, trans nonbinary poet based in Boston. Their work has appeared in, or is forthcoming in, Flypaper Magazine, Crab Fat Magazine, Winter Tangerine, Tin House, and elsewhere. They are the author of We've All Seen Helena (Game Over Books).
