Published in Anti-Heroin Chic Literary Magazine Issue 36 (a publication in this magazine was a long goal of mine) https://heroinchic.weebly.com/blog/poetry-by-danielle-patino
Hands On a cold night in September We hold The peaked weight Of pretend. This large game We’ve played With years of bated breath; Here we are at It’s culmination, and I think You may lose. Your eyes feign focus On the TV But you’re thinking Of surrender-- It may be better That way. Your hands break The silence; You let your fingers rub The knuckle of my thumb Under this cave of linens Where wilderness Spews. This bed Is the soil which birthed us, Our primal return. We know we’re sitting in dirt, The skill is in pretending We’re clean. I don’t move a muscle; I too stare at the screen--our Safety; home-base--but I feel Your caress, each tendril’s Stroke, it grows With intent. A warning, You are giving up; You’re losing, You’re losing, you will Take me soon. Me, a girl In your hands.
If I Wasn’t So Boring I Bet I’d Be Loved I fantasize the blast Of drugs and drink I could be At 3am in Your spider infested Glass room; It’s rainy and cold, We swat our legs Against mosquitos – A pain to stop a pain – And we moan in tandem With rainfall barking Against blurred windows That keep us shut in; The place wears A golden dim Like yellowed teeth; The smoke from your cigarette Catches in my hair and it Cataracts your eyes Though that isn’t why You won’t look at me. My panties hang Off the edge of your father’s Rusted barbecue, My bare clit Dripping phlegm On your dirty plastic chair, Your fingers, Sticky from gas station 4-lokos, Sliding in And out of me-- It would take only one look For you to know Something’s missing, and Quick, you’d fill yourself Back into me, The mess of two humans We could be.
Danielle (she/her) is a graduate student in the Adolescent English Education program at Hunter College in NYC. She has an Undergraduate Degree in Creative Writing, with a minor in Religion, from Hunter College as well. You can access her full repertoire of published works, or read her book reviews at storybeforeslumber.com.
