Submissions by Betty
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
“Only time can heal what reason cannot”— Seneca
rotgut
I want to slide past your lips
like silk,
like kerosene,
like madness,
and bloom in your stomach like a
drop of food coloring in a glass of water
taint that shit irrevocably.
I want you to fuck you up
so damn badly tonight
that you swear off me
tomorrow morning,
unwilling to put your body
through this again.
and when you mean to reach for a
glass of water and an asprin,
I want you to instead
reach for me
with shaking hands
for just one...
like silk,
like kerosene,
like madness,
and bloom in your stomach like a
drop of food coloring in a glass of water
taint that shit irrevocably.
I want you to fuck you up
so damn badly tonight
that you swear off me
tomorrow morning,
unwilling to put your body
through this again.
and when you mean to reach for a
glass of water and an asprin,
I want you to instead
reach for me
with shaking hands
for just one...
1263 reads
12 Comments
In (fidelity)
I was refreshing my email,
texting, daydreaming,
and throwing off waves
of fuck-off —
because I’d been
the referee
in the recent games of
household war so often
I ran out and bought the
black-and-white-striped shirt —
when he turned down the radio
and turned off the ignition.
I braced myself for
whatever damn thing
he was going to say
that I was going to have to
add to my to-do list.
“You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
I dropped my phone, and lurched...
texting, daydreaming,
and throwing off waves
of fuck-off —
because I’d been
the referee
in the recent games of
household war so often
I ran out and bought the
black-and-white-striped shirt —
when he turned down the radio
and turned off the ignition.
I braced myself for
whatever damn thing
he was going to say
that I was going to have to
add to my to-do list.
“You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
I dropped my phone, and lurched...
1331 reads
6 Comments
Just soooo f**king Shakespearean
I was standing in the paper towel aisle
at the grocery store at 10 p.m.,
my feet were killing me
and my mind was sifting through
the droning minutes of the meeting I'd just sat in
when it all came crashing
down
around me
When the truth ran its lips across
the front of my neck,
worked its way down my body,
sank its teeth in my belly,
and worried me like a
piece of rancid meat
in the mouth of a stray dog.
My hands tightened around the cart
and I bit...
at the grocery store at 10 p.m.,
my feet were killing me
and my mind was sifting through
the droning minutes of the meeting I'd just sat in
when it all came crashing
down
around me
When the truth ran its lips across
the front of my neck,
worked its way down my body,
sank its teeth in my belly,
and worried me like a
piece of rancid meat
in the mouth of a stray dog.
My hands tightened around the cart
and I bit...
947 reads
10 Comments
battlef**king
let’s stop with the pretense
and throw down
using nothing but our bodies
as weapons
and baby this time
I’m armed to the teeth
when you drop your bag
at the front door
I'll be waiting in
two feet of flowing
holy-fucking-shit
with matching heels
and see-through panties,
guaran-damn-teed to distract
you so I can strike
first
And I will,
if you can’t fucking stop me
if you can’t fucking take me
I will
fuck ...
and throw down
using nothing but our bodies
as weapons
and baby this time
I’m armed to the teeth
when you drop your bag
at the front door
I'll be waiting in
two feet of flowing
holy-fucking-shit
with matching heels
and see-through panties,
guaran-damn-teed to distract
you so I can strike
first
And I will,
if you can’t fucking stop me
if you can’t fucking take me
I will
fuck ...
1821 reads
10 Comments
kiss me hello
I woke slowly,
battered inside
in time with the headboard,
which knocked
an inch-deep groove
in the wall
from our latest round
of goodbye
and as I caught the sight of you
silently putting on your shoes
sun playing off the
highlights in your
hair
I jolted awake,
but stayed still,
watched the door quietly open
then quietly close.
I sat up,
the sheet to my chest
as I turned
to watch you leave
as if
hiding my body
could hide from
your...
battered inside
in time with the headboard,
which knocked
an inch-deep groove
in the wall
from our latest round
of goodbye
and as I caught the sight of you
silently putting on your shoes
sun playing off the
highlights in your
hair
I jolted awake,
but stayed still,
watched the door quietly open
then quietly close.
I sat up,
the sheet to my chest
as I turned
to watch you leave
as if
hiding my body
could hide from
your...
1072 reads
18 Comments
drunk
I miss you already
I fucking miss
you I do I'm frantic
and lost the whiskey
has numbed me I
can't think I can't
think I drank enough
to remind me
to remember to
forget you but I
can't and
I won't when
this acrid shit
in my mouth
tastes like your
image and I can't
let it go not even
for a moment
and I can't lift
my hand it's
so weighted so
heavy how could
I how could I
love you
you know that
I never could say
that to you
and I never
could will and
I...
I fucking miss
you I do I'm frantic
and lost the whiskey
has numbed me I
can't think I can't
think I drank enough
to remind me
to remember to
forget you but I
can't and
I won't when
this acrid shit
in my mouth
tastes like your
image and I can't
let it go not even
for a moment
and I can't lift
my hand it's
so weighted so
heavy how could
I how could I
love you
you know that
I never could say
that to you
and I never
could will and
I...
959 reads
4 Comments
Incinerated
I'm curled in a pile of
ashes at your feet,
charcoal eyes rolled back
in a tolling
hallelujah,
lashless lids,
crackling into
faithless particles of
nothing.
The toe of your boot
sifts through,
to see what's left,
and there's a sickening
silence in the air,
heavy enough to
make us both flinch.
From the dust-caked ether,
I'm soundlessly screaming,
desperately clinging.
reaching and yearning,
and you can't hear, or
see
or feel
my active inaction,
because my vocal chords...
ashes at your feet,
charcoal eyes rolled back
in a tolling
hallelujah,
lashless lids,
crackling into
faithless particles of
nothing.
The toe of your boot
sifts through,
to see what's left,
and there's a sickening
silence in the air,
heavy enough to
make us both flinch.
From the dust-caked ether,
I'm soundlessly screaming,
desperately clinging.
reaching and yearning,
and you can't hear, or
see
or feel
my active inaction,
because my vocal chords...
1452 reads
10 Comments
Myocardial contusion
The heart is a four-chamber muscle
about the size of a fist
that sort of looks like
an alien egg sack,
or something,
it's sort of
gross.
The ass, though,
the female bottom,
bent over a knee,
is fucking beautiful.
The perfect rounds up top,
meeting in that dip,
that dark crevice,
and the lean lines of the flanks
creating that sharp
inverted V on the outside,
and I can't help but note the
ass, more than the heart,
tends to look exactly
like paper Valentines.
...
about the size of a fist
that sort of looks like
an alien egg sack,
or something,
it's sort of
gross.
The ass, though,
the female bottom,
bent over a knee,
is fucking beautiful.
The perfect rounds up top,
meeting in that dip,
that dark crevice,
and the lean lines of the flanks
creating that sharp
inverted V on the outside,
and I can't help but note the
ass, more than the heart,
tends to look exactly
like paper Valentines.
...
924 reads
7 Comments
Things to recall with your cock in my mouth
1696 reads
10 Comments
Eclipse
It was too much to take yesterday
and I needed to run,
to rest,
to feel nothing for a bit.
And I brushed him off
with some shitty words and
put on a camo sports bra
and tried to run it off,
run it all off,
the dead girl
and the dead boy
and his hooker mom with the rap sheet four pages deep,
and the raped woman who barely scored a blurb
because I was too fucking busy
writing a story about a poker run for a
pancreatic
cancer
patient.
When I got...
and I needed to run,
to rest,
to feel nothing for a bit.
And I brushed him off
with some shitty words and
put on a camo sports bra
and tried to run it off,
run it all off,
the dead girl
and the dead boy
and his hooker mom with the rap sheet four pages deep,
and the raped woman who barely scored a blurb
because I was too fucking busy
writing a story about a poker run for a
pancreatic
cancer
patient.
When I got...
1028 reads
8 Comments
Two-dollar whore
1450 reads
26 Comments
I f**king hate poetry
Every beautifully-broken
poetess tossed over
by a lover
looks like my future.
I hate poetry
so much the sight of a pen
makes my lip curl in
contempt.
(because I love you)
(because I hate it.)
Because I feel like a goddess
as your gentle lips
deluge my senses,
distracting me from the
feel of your rough hands
as they grab a block
and
sand me down
until I’m so brittle
that you hang me on
your window ...
poetess tossed over
by a lover
looks like my future.
I hate poetry
so much the sight of a pen
makes my lip curl in
contempt.
(because I love you)
(because I hate it.)
Because I feel like a goddess
as your gentle lips
deluge my senses,
distracting me from the
feel of your rough hands
as they grab a block
and
sand me down
until I’m so brittle
that you hang me on
your window ...
1662 reads
18 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by Betty