Girls Just
Promise me you’ll stay improper
And say lewd things customized to
My frame
Palms running over me,
Never anything pretty.
Show me a good time
On the periphery of the pool table
Crowd my belly to the bar
Fog up your windows
Tangle my hair
I am allowed to have fun, I say
Addressing anyone—you, me, or god
And so we have fun
Against your front door,
And facing that way on your couch,
Then halfway off the couch,
Then on the carpet with my head dangerously close to that cabinet
I don’t mind the risk, because of the way you yank me to safety
And tell me what I am
You haven’t been wrong yet
And make me give a statuesque turn when
I was about to retreat to the other room
Eyes flickering in the mist of male gaze
I like the way you put me in the center of
Your instinctual world
And against every surface we can reach
If my body is art, right now it is graffiti
Janae Mancheski is a technical editor and writer based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She recently moved to the Riverwest neighborhood to renovate an old Polish flat and participate in the robust writing community through establishments like Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, Woodland Pattern, and Nessun Dorma/Vegetarian Alcoholic Press. She wishes she could serve brunch cocktails, belt out Florence + the Machine songs across the prairie, and write poetry full time—that dream is in the works.
