Michele McDannold was the Editor-in-Chief at Red Fez Publications for five years and is currently the editor/publisher at Citizens for Decent Literature Press. She has an extensive collection of flannel and rubber chicken heads. She lives in a place called the Jhole and does various odd jobs at The Literary Underground and Ppigpenn. Michele is currently finishing up her first full-length collection of poetry called Stealing the Midnight from a Handful of Days.
*****
And now she goes by some other name
trina was the skinniest girl i had ever seen
hip bones sticking out
pale,
yellowish skin and terrible hair
but she had a kindness
and mystical way about her
that was captivating
for a while
she was wiccan
a couple times
a Buddhist
and always
with the tarot cards
she took me to my first
rocky horror show
we formed a coven
the boys brought flowers
mowed the lawn
wrote poems
sketches,
long into the night
acid trips in the park
and no need
for explanations
the worst and most harmful
was the multiple personality disorder
i never did buy it
it didn’t really matter though
after the third abortion
when she told me,
“i went into the bathroom
when he was done.
took the condom out of the trash
and shoved it up there.”
one could fairly say
her mind broke then
in some abortion clinic
out west
where he held her hand
watching the light fade
right out of her.
***
lolz
it’s not my fault
i was born into
a redneck town
that hates niggers
and hides the innocence
of children
under a riverbed
poor, in a trailer
at a relative’s
passed around
from one abuse
to the next
when you learn certain things
too early
it fucks your head
but i am not your victim
sorry, diet fads
sorry, dr phil
the funniest thing i ever heard
at a poetry reading
was a rape poem
i expect neither of us
needs to apologize
Feature photo of the author by Chandra Alderman
