How to Wear your Mothers Lipstick

You must wear it like she wears disappointment on her face



You must hide the surprise of tasting other men on your lips

Your mother is a woman and women like her cannot be contained.



You find the black tube inside her beauty case, where she keeps

your fathers old prison letters,

you desperately want to look like her,

film star beauty, you hold your hand against your throat

your mother was most beautiful when sprawled out on the floor

half naked and bleeding.



You go to the bathroom to apply the lipstick,

somewhere no one can find you

your teeth look brittle against the deep red slickness

you smile like an infant, your mouth is a wound

you look nothing like your mother

you look everything like your mother.



You call your ex-boyfriend, sit on the toilet seat and listen to

the phone ring, when he picks up you say his name slow

he says i thought i told you to stop calling me

you lick your lips, you taste like years of being alone.