Content warning: Sexual references.
Rear shots of the woman put in a fake cheetah-print coat
can be read
as merely cinematic
until they quote the part where she is on
her hands and knees with doe eyes
looking into the camera:
“Someone hand me a gun”
she had a sex dream last night
that she wears stained on her white t-shirt
that becomes visible
when the rain comes out cold
and she hums to its rhythm
accentuating every fevered
breath
she spits into a bucket
hoping to replicate the sky
and give herself a different outcome
she wakes up
to a semi-half-real
handprint across her face
and when she looks into the mirror
she can only see the real half
but she can feel all five fingers’ painted tips laced
with their own prophecy:
Sex must please the man
Sex must please the man
Sex must please the man
would she lose your attention?
if she stopped fucking the page?
if she moves like this
or like this
has she re-engaged your focus?
because she stands like a gun
at the firearm dealer
and she screams from the top shelf
yet she can feel the price tag
block the conversation from ever reaching
her mind
and through the camera lens
she can see through its cracked reflection
that displays a woman with thick heels
where the rain only falls to pour
and as she drowns in its pooling
she never bothers to ask for help
the water lifts her skirt
and the viewer count just went up.
Erika Haxton is a hardworking 3rd-year English major at Trent University who has a profound interest in the arts, and in particular, creative writing. Within her work, she portrays different topics through imaginative, elusive imagery that extends off the page and becomes something vivid for the reader. She takes inspiration from the mundane within everyday life, as well as other inspirations like Ocean Vuong, Lana Del Ray, and Clarice Lispector. Erika uses writing as a way to understand life and all the complications that it brings, while presenting it in a way that is more fitting to all.
Featured image by Todd Diemer on Unsplash.
