Lily Holloway
Tonight my heart is miss piggy curly-haired brandishing a knife
because we are sitting in the park when he tells me I have ruined him
for other women & when I give him a chance to make it a joke he lets
the words echo out anyway. As I walk home I grieve the way I imagined
he thought of me: as more than his zany sexy-troubled wild thing. Later
a colleague asks if I somehow gave him the wrong idea & emphasises
the importance of letting him down gently. Like a child. Like a heavy rock.
So I imagine the green m&m bludgeoning a dead horse with a hard pink
suitcase & I imagine burning down his workplace! I grip a scalding cattle-iron
& brand myself cocktease across the forehead. Is that easier? Next time
my anger will be too unholy to look at & my quirky will slice off his hands.
Lily Holloway (they/her) is screaming in a Four Square car-park. You can find their recent work in Peach Mag, Hobart After Dark and Ōrongohau|Best New Zealand Poems, or find a full list of where to read their writing at lilyholloway.co.nz. Lily is currently a first-year poet undertaking an MFA in Creative Writing at Syracuse University.