®

Today's poem is by Lisa Dordal

Survival
       

Inside the pizzeria, love's latest news was carved
into the darkly stained surface of every table. The force
of blunt gray knives and shameless teenage muscle
creating a landscape of pique, impeccably done.
Caroline is a bitch. Liz and Tommy forever. Sheila likes pussy.
Later, my own name next to the words "Cock" and "Teaser."
I ordered salad and minestrone—pizza, I knew,
would be messy, one of the many tips I'd read in Seventeen
along with: Look interested. Don't disagree. And
Be yourself! My date ordered chicken, still on the bone.
There were others after this. Different names;
a father's borrowed cologne filling the air between us.
Eventually, making myself homely, shapeless,
anything to let the "No" come, instead, from them.



Copyright © 2018 Lisa Dordal All rights reserved
from Mosaic of the Dark
Black Lawrence Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission

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