I DANCE WITH A MAN WHO HAS A GIRLFRIEND AT MY LOCAL KARAOKE JOINT by Erica Anderson-Senter

I DANCE WITH A MAN WHO HAS A GIRLFRIEND AT MY LOCAL KARAOKE JOINT

and I swear, I come undone when he touches my ribs, says—
mmm, girl, you’re so skinny— and I am, it has been weeks
since I’ve feasted on a man and I swoon under those dirty
hands: oil worked into his skin, brutal from wrench-wear.
Here, warm under spotlights in this packed bar, I come alive
from empty bed syndrome and dark-ocean grief— my skin
hasn’t been touched for months and honestly, given
the state of affairs and politics of my contemplative
heart—I give no shits that he belongs to a woman named Natalie.
I apologize to chaste gods—thread of the moon
shaking her head—but with strange hands on my bright body, I
come into power. I empty the jars of guilt and eat the fruit
he feeds me, my face shimmering under disco ball confetti.
Yes, another woman’s lover wants to taste my sweat—
I blossom under his calloused hands.

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Erica Anderson-Senter writes from Fort Wayne, IN. Her first full length collection of poetry, Midwestern Poet’s Incomplete Guide to Symbolism, was published by EastOver Press in 2021. Her work has also appeared in Midwest Gothic, Dialogist, Anti-Heroin Chic, and One Art. She has her MFA from Bennington College.