Photo by Alex Hudson on Unsplash
Once I learn I’m fuckable
there is no stopping me—
I steep my feet in
anything bedazzled.
All the heels that made me feel
vertigo & trainwreck
line up in my closet
unapologetic. Each new lover
follows me home
in no small amount of wonder
as pink sling-backs balance
on the tip of my finger.
Here is a waltz:
purple platforms on a lawyer’s yacht.
The white limousine refusing
to take me back unless
I blow the driver first.
My gray slouch boots befriend
every bouncer. The black peep-toes
want to survive past Halloween
lingerie & a bloody neck bite.
Oh my stupid over-the-knee-boots
always begging for it, some dress
with a zippered front
the beginning & end
of a conversation
about his uneasy wife.
Nothing stops me anymore.
Wet grass slick
with morning, each blade
nips at my red ankle-bows.
All these mouths to feed.
Somewhere an espadrille lies lost
under the bed of a man
who entered me just before
he turned cruel.
Danielle Mitchell (she/her) is a feminist poet and teaching artist. She is the Founding Director of The Poetry Lab, a community-based learning program that rallies in service of working class writers across the globe. Danielle is the author of the prose poem chapbook Makes the Daughter-in-Law Cry, winner of the Clockwise Prize (Tebot Bach, 2017). Her poems have appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Vinyl, Four Way Review, Transom, New Orleans Review, Nailed Magazine and others. She is currently working on a manuscript of poems about misogyny and the Internet. Find her at poetryofdanielle.com and on Instagram @imaginarydani.