“Wasted” Vallum Magazine 18:1 Invisibility Issue

memory slips through crooked fingers,
reaching for seventeen and its promises

we were skinny things
cocaine eyes and cracked lips
sharing cherry gloss between classes

“Thinner is the winner”
we sipped Diet Coke at lunch

a sky-blue cafeteria melting grease and thick laughter
plates of poutine and pizza
a game: how long to eat a pepperoni?
nibble the edge
taste salt on your tongue
salivating
ignore the wolf gnawing in your belly

“Thinner is the winner”
we chewed cinnamon gum at night

a bedroom plastered with DiCaprio posters
praying the pangs away
a hundred leg lifts
gets you there
gets you closer to God

bones, the hollows
then, a hundred more
explore peaks and valleys
the body, a map
flesh burns away like a sacred candle
ribs, the center of the universe
count them all, like stars

now, I am steam rising from a kettle
a disappearing act
or, a distant memory

“Unsettled” Anxious mini zine, Feels Zine: Anxiety

Speaks sweet like black cherry I choke on the pit

And rattle along, sucking a seed Where is my mind?

Searching to pull the right words Out of a tongue wrapped in gauze

Will there be cake at this party? I can lick the frosting

Then spend hours burning it from my body

Apologize for not being No, not hungry

But hopelessly hopeful That one day fruit will be more than flesh More than pulp

Exhaling at the dinner table Plate and fork are weapons

Used to conquer territory Where no map can bring you back

If you stray too far Into the land of bones

And forget how to chew Or why you started the journey at all

“Homecoming” Writing in the Time of Covid (Life Rattle Press, 2021)

“42” short story (p.8), Canvas magazine (Ryerson University, 2014)

My name is Darla. Darla Rose. And I live on the outside. Not on the outskirts of town or the wrong side of the road. No, it’s more like I see but am not seen. I hear but am not heard.

          You know the feeling?