Celestial Bitch
I use stars as a talking point at parties.
Not that they’re dead, everyone knows that.
I talk about Orion and Cassiopeia
like I know them personally
& light pollution & the constellations I think I can see.
Did you know that Venus is the brightest planet?
Of course you do, but you play
into my game lest you spend
an evening with just you &
your hands.
I note your reactions,
bury them between my legs,
expose my rotting tongue,
force your return.
You can call me a bitch, I don’t mind.
You’re at your most attractive
when coerced into hostility,
calling me like I am
so I don’t have to call myself.
I revel in it,
brand myself:
bitch when asleep,
bitch when awake,
bitch when dead.
I want to be the bitch
that rocks the cradle,
the hand that slaps your previous notions,
Tuesday bitch who studies until morning
and flaunts herself at night,
midnight bitch,
dreary as I open my mouth
& cough myself up
like an oversized pill;
& when you look down on me
your vision will throb
with darting eyes &
upturned lips swollen
from kissing myself in the mirror.
My favorite bitch
you’ll think,
my favorite means to an end;
celestial bitch
who knows all the right words to say
& planets to discuss.
Mia Donaldson is a freshman at SUNY Geneseo double majoring in English literature and political science with a minor in the Edgar Fellows program. She plans to continue her English studies into graduate school, and can typically be found around campus reading or staring wistfully into the vast Geneseo farmland. Their interests include, but are not limited to: women, anything written by Ottessa Moshfegh or Thomas Hardy, Mitski, stompy boots, and matcha lattes.