Poetry:
MK Chavez
You Can’t Spank the Monkey Forever, the Monkey Hates It
Like porn, casual sex will eventually get boring.
If the person you’re considering having sex with
makes you feel dirty and ashamed before penetration,
imagine how it will feel once your heart is harpooned
and a mere figurehead on a prow.
Everyone can be a unicorn if they stop being a dick.
If someone has given your directions on how to find love,
Remember that a map to the heart is a cart-tas-trophe
Dive head first, heavy headed as a baby
when you come across the one,
the second and the third.
Try all the lovers on for size.
It’s all target practice.
Attempting to attach order to something that is endemically
chaotic is a bunch of
dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin.
Don’t give up before you’ve reached your mark.
After the storm roll your hummingbird heart in the muck
until you are one with nature.
You have to die to be reborn.
Imagine yourself a hunter.
Now imagine yourself as the last white rhino.
MK Chavez is the author of several chapbooks, including Mothermorphosis. Her full-length collection, Dear Animal, was released by Nomadic Press. She is co-founder and co-curator of the reading series Lyrics & Dirges, co-director of the Berkeley Poetry Festival, and recipient of a 2016 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Her most recent and upcoming publications can be found in Story Magazine, Jam Tarts Literary Journal, and Yellow Chair Review.
Image: washingtonpost.com
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