TODAY

i picked crumbs off the floor 

cried, kept  

all of my appointments 

the bird called  

then the bird didn’t 

i remembered  

we’re mostly water  

and after that  

just  

taste

MYTH

i can’t kiss you  

i just cut my lip  

there are 15 knives  

inside of my house  

babies look dead  

when they nap  

my period hasn’t been the same 

since i took that Plan B  

i’ve begun to supplement 

the heat from the furnace 

with an electric heater  

while i sit in front  

of the window, looking  

everything i own  

has a hole, lets  

something in  

four legs could not  

bring me to you  

quick enough  

i think

I WANT TO LOOK EXPENSIVE WHEN I’M HURTING

while the doctor cauterized my cervix  

i thought about a man pissing into a bush  

his whole spine relaxed  

i’ve never been that relaxed  

the first thing i ever prayed for  

was to not vomit  

when i come it’s usually by accident  

like tripping  

i’m looking for a sprinkler  

that rotates with military precision  

so i can baptize my shins  

i’ve forgiven myself for some things  

other things i still feed  

under the porch 

Chelsea Tadeyeske is a poet and bookmaker from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she co-edits pitymilk press and curates poetry readings in her apartment, The Bell Tower. She is the author of several chapbooks including If You Bend It Backwards Nothing Really Happens (Rabbit Catastrophe Press, 2017), Princess Diana (Bathmatics, 2019), Island Weather (pitymilk press, 2022) and Orange Poems (pitymilk press, 2024). She is a Virgo sun, Libra rising and Aquarius moon born in the year of the snake.