Cannibal
Chelsey Wright
__________
After “Scarf Fetish” by Heather Ryan Kelley
__________
There are red scarves hanging on a laundry rack in a secret market,
watching one be sold and exploited
to a plump model with good taste and a man with blue-tinted teeth.
His blue-tinted teeth remind me of the album covers for misogynistic
punk bands in the 2000s or the sewer monster
that steals a skater’s body
before the main menu screen on Tony Hawk’s Underground.
He kisses her neck. His tongue is lapping the fabric. Her new satin scarf,
tenderized and saliva-soaked, seduces the teeth to take a bite.
Blue-tinted teeth gnaw, rip, chew, swallow
the satin like a rare steak. The seams floss the tooth gaps. His canines meet neck flesh.
Blue-tinted teeth drag blood through crinoline and black nylon stockings,
feasting
on the voluptuous measurements of this modern pin-up model
__________
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Posted in When in Rome: Nov '25 and tagged in #boudin, #poetry, Poetry