by Olivia Pierce Graham

That first menses smell. Wrists thin and
deep in a plot of wet black dirt, rife
with earthworms and isopods

fat enough to cut in half. Those little bodies;
little fibroids ruled benign. Transparent,
they recoil from the sun.

I contemplate killing just to see if I can.

The desire stirs atonal inside me,
swelling like a ruined violin.

Of course I can’t.

Another day is half-complete,
another half-completion
is closer to the end.

Olivia Pierce Graham holds an MFA in Poetry from The New School. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Botticelli Magazine, Button Eye Review, Midsummer Dream House, Ohm Journal, Sad Girl Diaries, Wild Roof Journal, and others. Cherry Dress Chapbooks published her debut chapbook, Gloom of Excruciating Desires, in 2022.

by Olivia Pierce Graham

That first menses smell. Wrists thin and
deep in a plot of wet black dirt, rife
with earthworms and isopods

fat enough to cut in half. Those little bodies;
little fibroids ruled benign. Transparent,
they recoil from the sun.

I contemplate killing just to see if I can.

The desire stirs atonal inside me,
swelling like a ruined violin.

Of course I can’t.

Another day is half-complete,
another half-completion
is closer to the end.

Olivia Pierce Graham holds an MFA in Poetry from The New School. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Botticelli Magazine, Button Eye Review, Midsummer Dream House, Ohm Journal, Sad Girl Diaries, Wild Roof Journal, and others. Cherry Dress Chapbooks published her debut chapbook, Gloom of Excruciating Desires, in 2022.