"at night when i walk the sassy pomeranian inside of me" by Chelsea Tadeyeske

i suck the dicks
i have to crack my jaw to fit

being a small thing is a privilege
i’ll sometimes borrow
impression marks are ugly
when they’re irregular

my soul is cockeyed
horrible at math
spends too much time crying
over plastic bags
readjusting to the environment

i want someone who
does the things you do
but isn’t you

when you leave
i make everything into a bed
and die in it

my cat kneading on me in an act
of pretend needing
the electricity surging and
everything just staying on

-

Chelsea Tadeyeske is poet, performer, and bookmaker from Milwaukee, WI where she publishes poetry under pitymilk press. She has released many chapbooks including her most notable recent works, if you bend it backwards nothing really happens (Rabbit Catastrophe, 2016), the short story collection Princess Diana (bathmatics, 2019) and the floor of a cage floating above the floor of a house (bathmatics 2020). You can find some of her work online at Pretty Owl Poetry, Delirious Hem, Smoking Glue Gun, and Leopardskin & Limes, among others. She is a Virgo sun/Aquarius moon/Libra rising born in the year of the snake. Peek a semi-up-to-date archive of her work at chelseartadeyeskeblog.wordpress.com.