The League of Villainesses

NaPoWriMo day 14, poem 14/30. Totally forgot to write yesterday! Today's prompt is about superheros and supervillains, which intrigued me even though I have very little knowledge on the subject. I was googling female supervillains to try to find someone who interested me, but decided that my lack of superbackground made writing about a novice villain a good choice.

The League of Villainesses

This is the arsenal:
longbows and mascara,
whips, lipstick, machine guns,
a hairdryer that shoots flames.
Appearance is key
they tell me.
A villainess must be
a temptress. They show me
shelves of spandex
and leather, buckles,
rhinestones, holsters, let me
run my hands over anything
I desire. A villainess must
hold still they say
while they pin and paint me.
Feel the bile rising.
I am more I say as they
rouge my cheeks and crown
my hair with gold. We
are more they sing back to me
when we are together.

Undone

NaPoWriMo day 12, poem 13/30. I wrote this last night but didn't have an opportunity to post it, so here it is. Inspired by some of the weirder numbers in a burlesque show I went to last night. One part Little Red Riding Hood, one part dissection.

Undone

Beneath this dress
I am a monster.
My body aches
in the strangest places,
skin and shoulders,
heels and hips.
Untie the laces
that hold me together
and let my heart fall
through the slits
in my skin.
I crouch down,
swallow it whole
to keep it safe,
feel it ticking
in my throat.

55 Hours

NaPoWriMo day 11, poem 12/30. I actually wrote this poem for my workshop class, but since nothing else has come to me today I figure I'll post this early draft here. The prompt was to write something about a fallen hero. My choice was obvious: misguided as I might have been, I idolized Britney Spears growing up. This is about the day I gave her up.

55 Hours

Plaintiff Spears lacked understanding of her actions to the extent that she was incapable of agreeing to the marriage.


She wakes in the back of the limo
neck aching, mouth dry,
a man across her lap.
She remembers everything.
This is the day it ends.

There is glitter in her lashes,
chipped polish on her nails
and she knows that she is lost.
In front of the cameras
she sealed her fate last night with a kiss.

No more feigned virginity.
She is everything they wanted:
trainwreck, bimbo, slut.
She can annul her new attachment
but it seems priests are more forgiving

than grocery store magazines.
The last nascent lesbians
take her picture from their lockers,
fold her little girl smile on itself.
This is the day it ends.

Splinter Heart

NaPoWriMo day 10, poem 11/30. Today's prompt is unloving which is just too awesome. Inspired slightly by Once Upon a Time's Snow and Cora.

Splinter Heart

Hand me the scalpel
and I will cut you out.
I slit myself collar
to navel and set
organs on the table.
You are not
in my liver or small
intestine but I deflate
my lungs, squeeze out
the breath you breathed
into me mouth to mouth.
My uterus looks
like a heart
and is red with you
so I leave it on the floor.
It's the real heart
that's the problem.
I must edge my blade
around the splinter of you,
avoid the good
I don't want to spill.
Can I unlove you
and live on? One wrong cut
and I lose all of me,
crumple to the floor,
bile in my chest and ash
in my hands.

Ruby and Platinum

Napowrimo day 9, poem 10/30. Today's prompt was noir as inspiration. They mentioned a two-timing blonde in the description, so that's what I went with. I picture her as Britney Spears crossed with Meghan Ory (hence "ruby and platinum").

Ruby and Platinum

In her grayscale world
she's ruby and platinum.
She doesn't smoke
but every few minutes
she touches two fingers
to her lips. At dusk
she sets out in her slitted dress
and walks beneath the neon
with perpetual motion eyes.
She nurses her gin
in the nearest dive, sits back
to the wall. She palms
a coaster from the bar
and twirls it in long fingers.
She watches for a stranger
in a trench, a sign,
an anonymous kiss.

Under

NaPoWriMo day 8, poem 9/30. Today's prompt suggested using ottava rima. I've been fighting with this poem for a while, trying to find the right form for it, so I thought I'd give ottava rima a go. I ignored the meter (for now, at least) and tried to re-cut and re-rhyme my original poem. I'm missing what I took out to make it fit the eight lines, so maybe later I'll try a second stanza.

The original inspiration was a series of photos in Gaga by Terry Richardson which show her getting ready for her "Born This Way" Grammy performance. I started writing it a few weeks after her recent surgery. In the meantime, I think it's taken on a bit of a life of its own.


Under

They cover your black lips and feed you air,
your outlined eyes gauze-veiled.
You sleep before they cut away your hair,
saw flesh and bone to find whatever ails
the girl stripped down, threadbare,
open, broken, under, frail.
Gone the ink flowers that bloomed at your hips.
The surgeon paints your blood upon her lips.

Knight

NaPoWriMo day 7, poem 8/30. For whatever reason I wasn't in a poetry mood today, but I really want to write every day. This poem is last minute, but I think that some other time I might be able to spiff it up. Today's prompt was to write a poem in which every line is a statement, with the last line being a question. It gave me some cool opportunities for repetition but felt really odd to write.

Knight

I just wanted to protect you.
It sounds like what a villain would say.
I promise I'm not a villain.
Don't mind me.
You didn't mind when I opened doors.
You didn't mind my stockinged December legs.
I didn't mind my stockinged December legs.
When you were cold I held your feet.
When you came to me I waited.
When you came to my bed I waited.
I didn't want you to think I was only after one thing.
I was only after one thing.
That one thing wasn't what you think.
That one thing was an antidote.
I wanted to cure loneness.
The cure tasted bitter.
This love tasted cheap in my mouth.
It's never tasted like that before.
I don't know what went wrong.
You never told me what went wrong.
You never told me what I did wrong.
What did I do wrong?