A Poem By Monica McClure

by Mark Bibbins, Editor

Beauty School Dropout

I want to solve the problem of heterosexual desire
like why do I love dick so much
Is there something transcendent about self-abasement
I’m not a licensed esthetician so I don’t know
what scholars say
about Brazilian keratin treatments
The formaldehyde stylists breathe is Adam’s Curse
To be a woman is to know one must starve
I don’t feel very straight at all
I masturbate to underground gay thug porn
and still wind up thinking
about the male gaze
I want to be so skinny people ask if I’m dying
Have you ever been on the roof of The Standard
and noticed your tatters in the unforgiving sun
What do the stewards check for in the bathrooms
when they walk into your stall after you exit
Is it unicorn piss if it’s your
sappy inner monologue
There is a guy here who looks like an heir
and every woman here would sleep with him
except for me

Monica McClure’s chapbooks, Mood Swing and Petocha/ Chiflada are forthcoming from Snacks Press Inc. and #wtfislongsdrugspress, respectively. Her poems have appeared in the Los Angeles Review, The Lit Review, Lambda Literary Review’s Spotlight Series, Spork Press and elsewhere. She curates the Atlas Reading Series and lives in New York City.

You will find more poems here. You may contact the editor at [email protected].