Roseanna Alice Boswell

Image by Rachel Sipser

Rattle Bones

Do you know where the women are
(the ones similar to me) — preferably funny
but anyone would settle for vaguely comic.
I’m in desperate need of a point of comparison
— you know, like Barbie, for grown-ups.

You want nothing that I can’t give you,
you tell me as I lay perfectly still
wondering about the expiration
of my fuckability, wondering how many times
you’ll orgasm before your teeth rattle
loose on my chest.

Do you know where the women are
whose vulvas I am meant to emulate
& how will I know if I’m bitch kitschy enough
unless we are always fucking (i.e. making love)?
​
You see I am not representative of any one sexuality
but you can lick my earlobe while I worry
& that seems like a kind of political statement.

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ROSEANNA ALICE BOSWELL is a poetry MFA candidate at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Her work has appeared or will appear soon in: Ghost City Press, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Driftwood Press, Maudlin House, and Glass: A Journal of Poetry. Roseanna is currently acting as Managing Editor for the Mid-American Review. You can find her on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/swellbunny posting about feminism and her love of exclamation marks!