Her

I hate hate hate

this part of my brain

I’m in right now

if it’s the part

all this junk

is clunking around in

but there she is

her bright eyes looking

like she knows she’s smart

and something about

her hair the way

how even though it’s short

it curls all over

I know I know

she’s got a girlfriend

that’s so not it

Isn’t it?

she can draw

a peach that moves

a peach so real

that real peaches

can look at it

and understand

what

being a peach

is

all about

but she never smiles

not real smiles

not when I look at her

just these flat stretches

of her lips

a kind of cold slit

and anyway her

freezing smiles

don’t make it to her eyes

which like I said are bright

but seem just now as if they’re

reading a bad word

what makes her not

like any of the others?

I know I shouldn’t ask

I know I know

but I don’t know

still there she is

behind the trash bin

squinting at me

her fingers stained with paint

pulling a smoking cigarette

out of her mouth

slowly like she knew I was

no threat

I spat out the last

of the slop

You should do it in your hand.

she said

Puke in your hand.

It’s funnier.