Published September 15th, 2024
by Emma Matus
The billboard over the Waco Kolache Shoppe assures me:
I'm being watched.
I watched God, too – Four days sleepless in a post war high rise, uncut
toenails burrowed in velvet carpet, peer through a telescoping window,
a limp cigarette dangling beneath fish-bowl spectacles, as He jots notes
onto a pad of ink-blots and spilled alphabet soup, psychoanalyzing desire.
I watched Her slip out the back of an empty tupperware party, open child
-proofed cabinets, and dance bottomless in a full length, formica-framed
mirror, admire the dis-proprotions of Her knees and youth-crooked nose,
sneak candy from under a shag carpet, her bedroom blissfully unpeopled
I watched Her snicker over white whales, sperm whales, bees, banana flowers,
sixteen and sex-filled, throat clogged with swallowed origami notes the teacher
had threatened to read out loud, after she was marked late in last period,
after she crossed a line, and they cut it from the curriculum, marked up, made better.
I watched Him scrape a shoulder on brick, on alleyway asphalt,
learning to tumble and bust and unbuckle a belt like a Man With No Name,
stare down the others against a wall just the right side of black and blue,
just women like Him, and their women, just stone against soft stone.
I watched God and God watched me,
the giddy genius of my body.
We are learning what it is to feel good.
About the Poet
Emma Matus resides in Austin, Texas, United States.
Read the poet's biography on Emma Matus's Artist Page.
This poem is included in Poetry World #10,
published in the Wax Poetry and Art Library.
Previously published in Texas Poetry Magazine:
Inheritance
by Sarah Margaret Dicks
Texas Poetry Magazine is part of the Wax Poetry and Art Network.
- Visit the main Wax Poetry and Art Submissions Page to see all opportunities.
- Visit the Wax Poetry and Art Library.
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