A Study on Pink
panties stained with this month’s blood
Girl keep your legs closed the way flowers
never do spill their pink insides an open mouth
invitation musk and sweat
rounding a neck hooping fingers girl
make sure you shower
but your pink paint pink taint blooms
ginger-lily pungent not flowery not sweet
not discreet you want you to know you
smell like you how you smell like
pink pink your panty stink the boy
in the gravel-covered school yard you remember
his lips two-toned the bottom pink you remember Barbie
the smell of glitter in her blond hair the press
of fingers against plastic her skirt flung up and over
her plastic panty stuck a hard veil Girl,
why are you looking down there? the dark
classroom closed door shhh tell no one
the girl
lifting her school uniform rolling down
her underwear
parting flesh
Girl keep your legs closed the way flowers
never do spill their pink insides an open mouth
invitation musk and sweat
rounding a neck hooping fingers girl
make sure you shower
but your pink paint pink taint blooms
ginger-lily pungent not flowery not sweet
not discreet you want you to know you
smell like you how you smell like
pink pink your panty stink the boy
in the gravel-covered school yard you remember
his lips two-toned the bottom pink you remember Barbie
the smell of glitter in her blond hair the press
of fingers against plastic her skirt flung up and over
her plastic panty stuck a hard veil Girl,
why are you looking down there? the dark
classroom closed door shhh tell no one
the girl
lifting her school uniform rolling down
her underwear
parting flesh
January / February 2023
Catherine-Esther Cowie is a poet and visual artist from St. Lucia who has lived in Canada and now resides in the US. She is a graduate of the Pacific University low-residency MFA program. Her writing has appeared in a number of journals including Prairie Schooner, RHINO Poetry, West Branch Journal and the PN Review. Her work has been nominated for AWP Intro Journal, a Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets 2018 and 2019 and Best of the Net 2021.
Art: AI generated by DALL·E