home – poem by Rebecca Kokitus
sleep with amethyst and a pocketknife
beneath the pillow,
sleep with one eye open
my bitch face is cyclopic.
men scale walls like spiders,
circle like birds.
talons around rusted metal of
the fire escape—
they try and douse me like a house fire.
sew my eye shut like a corpse.
mortician twists my mouth into a grin.
he tells me I should smile.
This poem was written in response to ‘Ode to My Bitch Face’ by Olivia Gatwood.
