River Girls by McKenna Ashlyn (Idaho, 21)

i’m still afraid of everything
a man can touch and make his
a woman i love
is attending a tea party

whipped cream ribbons
pink pepper spray appendage
her head in my lap
coevolved with flowers, hummingbirds
​
only nectar and sugar water
they want us bird-boned
hang feeders on their creaky porches
and watch from the window

afraid of our shimmer, hover
of our spider-silk nest in glossed tea cup
jelly bean eggs lighter than a paperclip
crushed under his pinky finger

sunset’s celebration is locked windows
drawn blinds eyes on ceiling fan
spinning last gulp of tea cold
steeped too bitter

yesterday
i pulled glass out of her
toe in the bathroom
crimson sprinkling the tile

they think a woman
is something to be held
in the hand if small enough
he just has to catch her





McKenna Ashlyn received her BFA in Creative Writing at Boise State University. She gravitates toward queerness and girlhood in her poetry. Their work has been featured in Progenitor Art and Literary Magazine and Sage Cigarettes Magazine.