We haven’t forgotten about you, motherfucker

by E. Kristin Anderson

Show me where it hurts—America will kiss it

better.  Show me the purple bruise, the falling

out of/in to the car, the rolled ankle and the shoes

that will never look like shoes again. Show me

thirty years of a reflection you’ve learned

to accept as your own.  Show me where it hurts—

America will kiss it better. Show me his handprint

on your thigh. The vomit your stomach forced

up your esophagus and past your teeth. Show me

the whispers you tried to push out instead.

Show me where it hurts; America will kiss it better.

Show me your sisters—look at these perfect arms.

Did you take pictures? Show me the blood, the scrape,

the clock on your vagina. Show me the clock—

it ticks like an angry child. Show me where it hurts;

America will kiss it better. Hold my hand. Hers, too.

You are a list now. I print it and show them where it hurts.

I watch our daughters. They know where it hurts.

I watch the man. He puts on pajamas. We will not

let him kiss it better. Our sons know the kiss, the clock,

the bruise, the years. Kiss it better, kiss it better.

 

E. Kristin Anderson is a Pushcart nominated poet and author who grew up in Westbrook, Maine, and is a graduate of Connecticut College. She has a fancy diploma that says “B.A. in Classics,” which makes her sound smart but has not helped her get any jobs in Ancient Rome. Kristin is the co-editor ofDear Teen Me,an anthology based on the popular website. Her YA memoir The Summer of Unraveling is forthcoming in 2017 from ELJ Publications.  She now lives in Austin, Texas, where she works as a freelance editor and is trying to trick someone into publishing her full-length collection of erasure poems based on women’s and teen magazines. She blogs at EKristinAnderson.com and tweets at @ek_anderson.