Photo: © Depositphotos.com/SvetlanaFedoseeva
Written by Kim Koga

If
Grace Kelly had done this
photoshoot
Would she
have married a prince?

But
I am a Goddess
&
the monster
at the center to give your tooth
Teeth

My jaundiced pallor
It’s envy
Enemies tried to eat
And I defeated them
easily.
I took the O’s
My children
And made a
Solar system.
I took the spaghetti &
Made a religion.

We feast on gallstones
Of our enemies and
The sacrificial
purpled
Bodies of
the near dead.

Skin soaked water is weak.
& stones crack what’s left
Of our teeth.

&
on Sundays for dinner Rockwell
&
for every other
Venus eating her children.

Goddess forgives
Your weakness.
And slavery
To the durum wheat
The semolina
The rice
The quinoa
The gluten-free
The cannelloni
The fusilli
The lasagne
The yeasty left
The spaghetti
On your knees.

Don’t
Mansplain
The
Kingdom of
God
To me
Charlatan fancier financier
Pour out your
Purple painted heart
To
Me
You are a lock
& I hold
Life in my teeth

***

Kim Koga is the author of Ligature Strain (Tinfish Press 2011). She received her MFA from the University of Notre Dame where she was an Editorial Assistant for Action Books. Her publications include 1913 a journal of forms, Lantern Review, and Grab the Lapels. A collector of books, yarn, pens, scarves, and art supplies, she currently resides in San Diego County, CA.