Ruth Dorothy Grotenrath, untitled (1968)
September Seventeenth
My body is a switch for you
And I’m always right here
Carrying myself around
With these legs I’ll have forever
After talking for what felt like
Forever with you on the broken bed
You rub up against me
Just for the shine & my body
My body is a switch for you
That doesn’t turn anything on
contouring 101
beautiful women don’t
it means you have ugly things like thoughts of
who needs air when I have another man’s money?
perhaps in a better world so long as you look like
doesn’t matter
what can I say?
I’m a fountain I leech I regret buying both
I must warn you [:] if the men find out
we can shapeshift they are going
to tell the church
eliminate the nostrils
rich people don’t need to breathe
look at me
I’m a completely
different person
who wants to give me their money?
This poem is an erasure of a transcription of a YouTube makeup tutorial called “contouring 101” by Sailor J.
Rebeca Felix is a poet and educator based in Milwaukee. Her first book, Strip Poker, was released in a limited hand-sewn edition in 2023. She holds an MFA from Columbia University. Her work can be found in American Chordata, Pom Pom Press, Tuff Poems and Pitymilk Press.