Dole Whip
(Paper Hearts)
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.
About the Creator
Kayla Frances Murray
🙞 Southeastern US-based writer/poetess 🙜
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