Colette Loveys

Issue Three

provocation

everyone in my father’s town drives a tesla

and pays alimony 

and steps on butterflies

and picks ticks off their bred dogs

and pays off their inbred kids

and lets the dust collect on their artistic porno magazines

and sucks on fat cigars

and has a second phone

and has a first wife

and forgets how to dance

and is over prescribed medication for their hypochondria

and fakes a smile 

and hands their credit card over without looking at the bill

and forgets their grandmother’s name

and drinks themself into oblivion

and loves the screech of a baby’s cry

and is horrible at jeopardy 

and is late to the nail salon

and smells too sweet 

and mistakes nervousness for anxiety

and pulls out their eyelashes

and always arrives at funerals on time

and recommends surgeons

and knows the best scotch

and screams into pillows

and hides their scars

and clicks their heels out of the principal’s office

and hides lace panties in their desk drawer

and needs an extra shot of espresso 

and makes sure you pronounce it as espresso and not “expresso”

and chews on their gums

and offers their nephew a job

and pats their niece on the back

and whitens their teeth

and hangs metal frames over the holes in their walls

and skips meals 

but they never say god’s name in vain.

***********************************************************************************************

mary( )

memories wrapped in cellophane

and tied with a bow

of evening licking her tongue over the city

i hope you have forgiven 

the taste of 

agonizing and perfect fear

i left in your mouth

though, it was once delicious

a feast-filled night

rots inside us now 

an unwelcome vivarium

forever branded behind our temples

wishing to remain as

the friction inside of your jeans

knowing hope is futile

goodbye, troubled dreamer

About Colette Loveys
Colette Loveys (she/her) is an English major with a concentration in creative writing, studying at Temple University. She writes both poetry and fiction, though she primarily focuses on her poetry. She often writes about the gray areas of life, as her poetry engages the constant muddling of pain and pleasure, confusion and clarity that come with young adulthood. She uses her poetry to work through the clear sense of frustration she feels with social polarity. Colette expresses many of these contradicting ideas in hopes to connect with those also compelled by the inconsistencies of life.