Kirby Knowlton

millennial pink

the bay window of my lower back
keeps me diligent and afraid
i’m tired of men comparing my body
to pastries they’ve sworn off
but mostly i’m tired of crop tops
there’s a new name for an old color
and it keeps me up at night obsessive
i spend money i don’t have on pink
i’m trying to build a nest so pretty
that no one would dare disturb it
in school i learned a mother goose
is hardwired to protect her eggs
if one rolls away she makes a croquet
of her neck and brings it back home
she has no choice it’s in her blood
if you place any oblong thing near her
any soda can or hourglass or tennis shoe
she necks it back just the same
there is beauty and there is cruelty
and there’s what we leave behind
so that another might use it

Kirby Knowlton is from the south. You can follow her on twitter at @KirbyKnowlton.