asking eve for relationship advice
well, he made me cry again today.
i’ve learned to say i love you
like a snuffed-out candle.
labor has made me weary.
maybe it’s not all his fault.
i told him i was splitting like a seed
& he ran his tongue along the seam
who’s to blame for his ignorance?
for not knowing the poison root clutches?
my mother once threatened
my stomach with a knife & scraper.
now i am a thing to be gouged from a gut.
i could keep going but what’s the use?
the garden’s long past wilt
& we sleep in dirt. he has made us
a fine home from asphalt.
i spend my days spilling ocean
into cavern, he only makes the work fast.
i should thank him for all the places
i now have to hide from him.
my advice? wedge an apple slice
between your teeth so at least
you will taste something sweet
during the torture.
Falon Willow is a 19-year-old writer from New Hampshire. She's obsessed with girlhood and analyzing everything around her. She was the co-Teen Poet Laureate of New Hampshire from 2019-2020. Her work has been featured in several online journals and in 2021 she self-published her first poetry collection Sweet Dreams & Violent Ends. "asking eve for relationship advice" received first place in Under the Madness Magazine's Kick-Off Poetry Contest, judged by Ala Khaki.
