OH GOD THEY’RE EVERYWHERE

Lily dressed all in black with
“Pussy Riot” stitched permanently
on her back with hair from all her
former lovers woven into unbreakable
thread, was called a man hater
on the daily but what they didn’t
know was that out of all the
merchants, mermaids, and mechanics
in every universe she jumped
through, the only one who she
trusted with her pulsing soul
was a man.

Lily with rings on her fingers and
steel toed boots on her feet saved
her useful fear for the darkness
between her street and his
because she had lived too
many lives to be ignorant
about the way monsters
are raised, with the entitlement
to go anywhere and everywhere
they wanted. She should have
known better.

Lily with her security blanket
who wanted to be wrapped around
her body and cover her completely,
who put in his time at this dead
end job with only trust to show for.
Lily who laughed at satire and
reveled in the irony, who choked
on fear and then on flesh, who
opened a gateway she could not
protect rather than be on the
ground.

Lily tricked them all into
believing she would one day
fight with strong shoulders
thrown back, when she only
clung to hope in masculinity
and the structure of bones
as they had always stood.

Lily who could not live
in a world where they chose
how much power to allot her
and when to strip her down,
who would rather believe in
the power of parallel universes
than maneuver her way around the ones
who held the majority in this
broken globe.

Lily who knew a person who
knew a person who knew how
to stall the past from creeping
into the present, did not miscalculate,
she just wished that in this galaxy a
2 could become a 21 and she
could finally be able to hide well
enough and run fast enough to
escape the ever present danger
of entitled monsters.

By Kyra Wolff

Biography:

Kyra Wolff has been on her weird artistic train ride for a while but has just recently changed cars. She lives in the midwest where she practices being alive by writing poetry and novels about feminism and disability. Currently she’s working on a collection of poetry about her favorite obscure TV show. She wants to kiss you through the internet: @kyra_kat