Today's poem is by Jill Khoury

beware false prophets
       

he says you're mine / he says i can do anything i want he says
demons command it / i have scrawny arms and legs

and a slut's ass / i hide behind my hair / i believe in omens
and my own ability to shatter and reform / he closes a book

of magick with a knife in the center to guard it / he says i am
made for endurance / i believe in charms and conjuration

he's built solidly, gives me camouflage / i've always wanted
to be kissed / it makes me forget i am a beautiful sacrifice

///// each time i come home i'm worried my mother
will smell him / i'm close-mouthed at the table like

i have an awesome secret / her hawk hand throws down
the dinner plates / after, we retreat to separate fields

Copyright © 2024 Jill Khoury All rights reserved
from earthwork
Switchback Books
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission