Four Poems

by

I’m waiting outside, wanting
to get invited back
into your apartment
again & again
like a bad witch, a wounded
creature

When you examine me
I want to ask
if you like what you are finding
knowing it is better
not to ask

 
***
 

I go to the grocery store
just for peaches & olives

then sit on my bed
in my underwear

wishing for something in me
to be solid

instead of just
soft flesh

gathered around
nothing

 
***
 

You said you didn’t like the things I had to do
to stand to exist around you

We walked through the alleys around your apartment
with dilated pupils

I wanted to point to somewhere new, take us there
show you I was more than my emptiest part

but I could only follow you
I can only follow you

 
***
 

I can’t stop reacting
off of you
like a broken mirror

like an object
you never wanted to possess

 

Francesca Kritikos is a writer and editor from Chicago. Her poems have appeared in Plasma Dolphin, Peach Mag, Hobart and more. Her first chapbook, IT FELT LIKE WORSHIP, was published by Sad Spell Press in 2017. Find her on Twitter and Instagram @sappho1996.

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