Breadcrumb #319
AVANI PATEL
Are you sure it is safe?
I am sure,
You whispered,
If I am sure of anything, it is this, now
My feet were cold but the sand was warm
The waves waved, beckoned, tickled my toes so I laughed
Just jump
So I did
And we swam
Through uncertain waters and merciless waves we swam
Drowning and tumbling and calling it swimming.
We stopped.
Looked forward, back
Shore looked different now
Changing each time we waded these waters
The waves grew tired, kissing,
Gently, pulling away when needed.
I looked at you – covered in casualties of sea
Can you see?
I could not
Are you there?
You were not
So I saw
And swam back
To my sure.
Breadcrumb #318
DEVAN ROLLYSON
The one
Texts me poetry-
Words hot
Bourbon fire.
He says
Even in dreams
We are one.
The one
Gives me his cock,
Not his cum.
Because,
I have always
Loved tragedies.
The one
Paints me like
The Kiss.
Gets me off with
Hands that are calloused
From past lovers.
Hands that have
Touched velvet,
Touched my soul.
The one
Is tortured
The way all
Artists are.
I hate him
The most,
Because he is
My mirror.
Reflecting
Delusion after delusion.
The one
Journals his conquests-
But
I am not one of his
French girls
To be written about,
Finite and pressed neatly
Into the spine of what
Might as well be
His Bible.
Breadcrumb #317
JORDAN FRANKLIN
As if femininity was a bastard
smudge to be erased
before one could access pride
and if I was too ugly to be loved
then I couldn’t be touched
but still older men would grin
and call me “beautiful”
and all I wanted was to tear
off the map of my skin
so they wouldn’t dare explore.