curl your hair up nice
smell like aerosol
pretend you are a virgin
instead of used
not gently
in good condition
but discounted
pages are dog eared
marked
folded
water damaged
spine is split from bending
holding the front to back
like a handy-down book from good will
sorted by color
names written and crossed out
inside the corner
put it under a wobbling table
next to the toilet to thumb through
wedge a door open
never on the coffee table

Chelsea Stone

 

Chelsea Stone is a third-year law student and a striving poet. She has done most of her laughing and crying in Southern California. She says: ‘I write mostly of my anxieties, loves, life experiences, and (when the mood strikes) nature. I am trying to live and write in the gray area between logic and creativity.’

© 2018