Tag: Erica Anderson-Senter

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

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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.

One Poem by Erica Anderson-Senter

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TO THE RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD

The drumming out my window announces your presence and I swear,
I don’t want that small miracle to become common-place.
I want to think sweetly of your industry:
rhythm of finding food, cadence of life. I want to think
of my own heart, in its wet cavity, beating for the same reasons:
food,life, food,life, food,life—blood all wishy-washy
through my small shell—never even contemplating
what it means to love. Let my heart be a heart; let’s not
tether it to the well-spoken, big grinned man who saunters
in slowly but leaves abruptly. Let my work, my incessant
drumming, my movement, be a tiny revolution.
I, shaking my fist under the moon, praise the heart (my heart),
the drumbeat and lilt of work: living and such.

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Erica Anderson-Senter lives and writes in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She teaches high school Creative Writing. Her first full length collection, Midwestern Poet’s Incomplete Guide to Symbolism, is available through EastOver Press. Her work has also appeared in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, the once CrabFat Magazine, Midwestern Gothic, Off the Coast, and Dialogist among others. Her chapbook, seven days now, was published by The Dandelion Review. Erica hosts free literary events throughout her city to bring poetry to the public. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing through the Writing Seminars at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont.