Snap Crotch Onesie, by Gion Davis
Sunflower smell
like a hot highway
on the table & I’m
in my snap
crotch onsie
from urban
outfitters again
with the root beer
float that follows
a paper sack full
of peach colored
cherries & cardboard
cartons of black
raspberries, a bowl
of bloody stones,
fingers stained
with juice,
this summer is all
fruit. You’re going
to get sunburned
right here he says
in Maine & hooks
his fingers into my
shoulder blade with his
fiancé behind us.
Spit your cherry
pits into my palm
I’m your emotional
support mistress, red
one piece & choke
chain. Paradise
is flamin hot cheetos
in the car listening
to Best Coast or
it’s an island.
Maggots spilling
out of the compost
bucket in July &
he says adorable
usually means
fat just like a sunburn
means leave your
crotch unsnapped.
Catalpa blossoms
to cut through
on the sidewalk,
dusty box fan full
of hair in the window
with my peeling back.
What would my mom say?
Women age from the
top down is what he said.
I’m so tired of being
angry but I don’t know
what else to be except
alone or tonguing some
dummy’s face
at a party feeling
righteous &
decapitated by creme
de banana & lemon
pulp in the bottom
of a blue glass
like seaweed
clumped onto rocks
& barnacles sucking
in and out of themselves
I want to say I
went outside to barf
but instead I fell
asleep. She says
I’m sorry he offended
you which isn’t
an apology so much
as just putting
the blame on me.
I want to say sorry I
wanted your fiance
to hit on me, see
my belly button’s
an innie but
my pussy’s an outie.
Sometimes I want
to hit the ocean so hard
my bones burst.
I open my eyes
underwater to feel
the salt sting like
one long
slow blink.
Gion Davis is a poet from northern New Mexico where she grew up on a sheep ranch. Her poetry has been featured in Bad Nudes Magazine, Five2One Magazine and she has received the Best New Poets of 2018 Prize selected by Ocean Vuong as well as being shortlisted for the Peach Magazine Gold Prize selected by Morgan Parker. She is the co-founder and co-host of Dead Bird Reading Series and she currently lives in Northampton, MA, where she is seeking her MFA in Poetry at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Gion can be found on Instagram @starkstateofmind.