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Dole Whip

(Paper Hearts)

By Kayla Frances MurrayPublished 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago 1 min read
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you spread fresh-ground almond butter

on semolina & seed toast

you spread the laundry across that bulky

primitive-print chair and fold neatly

you spread your hands across mine and they

feel like a paper weight on my paperwhites

you spread out brie and shiny crackers for us

on a porcelain blue plate from Japan

you spread out, dole out words in ink because

you think you mean something written down:

‘I miss you

my mind is swimming with thoughts of you’

you spread other girls’ legs

and on a tainted mandala bedspread where I broke hy-

men, conceived our baby, amniotic fluid broke,

milk let down, I let down and broke down with fluidity`

you spread a smile only to the small corners of

your lips, because it’s filled with contempt

I’ve put all these moments down on mental spread-

sheets, but cannot fill the blank frames

so I’m going to be a self-fulfilling goddess and spread

paper hearts across the floor to trample them

spread African black soap across my body

and your charcoal toothpaste on my teeth

and maybe drink one of those lavender

charcoal lattes to cleanse

I’ll be spread across supple,

but I will not be spread thin.

Note: "Dole Whip" was originally published in the Summer 2019 issue of Plainsongs Magazine by Hastings College Press.

heartbreak
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About the Creator

Kayla Frances Murray

🙞 Southeastern US-based writer/poetess 🙜

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