Can I take off my heels?

Yes.

the actress sips her lemonade & asks me what I’m thinking. I say, guess.

Light breaking into hospital rooms.

Blue lipstick.

Game shows.

I laugh like a dog. The actress crosses her legs, [redacted] and uncrosses them.
​
Are you going to ask me anything?

She lights a cigarette like a man. Like she loves her wife. Like her wife is pretty. A conversation starter.

I let the light tenderize. I bite the pen’s plastic & look at her hands. How many times has she washed them in the entirety of her life? I smell soap.

What made you want to become
an actress?

She watches the lamp flicker as her dream bleeds back into her consciousness.

She was a small boy in a big church.

The actress uses her heel as an ashtray and breathes in,

I was always a sensitive child.

Jasmine Ledesma

 

Jasmine Ledesma is a sophomore at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City’s tender heart. Her work has appeared in the Accolades 2014 Poetry Collection, Freedom Whispers and The Carson Review. She was selected as Poet of The Week by Poetry Highway.

© 2019