Bitterness is the easiest way to leave this world having had only a near-life experience. - Andrea Gibson

Mary Levine calls you a dyke
and you don't have the words to tell her she's wrong

and right. You just show up to her house
promising to paint your fingernails red

with what will gush from her busted face
if she ever says it again.

This morning I saw her lipstick on
a coffee cup and felt like I had
never known a bruise.

I know this / is our first date / and that’s a lot / to share over nachos, / but I’d ideally tell you everything about me, / preferably before dessert.