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Writer's pictureMarías at Sampaguitas

2 Poems by Marisa Silva-Dunbar


Google states you are a Golgothan shit demon; I’m not keen to argue with the oracle.  

“Any man who must say, I am the king, is no true king.” -Tywin Lannister


Showing us is not enough—tell us what you want

us to think of you. Convince us that you are the blonde

bombshell you claim to be— purse your lips so they seem

fuller than the thin line. Create the illusion so when people

meet you irl, they’re slightly confused—your online visage

has always been a desperate facade—sell it to us any way.


Insist you’re a siren, although no man is falling

into the ocean when you call. You are the one they lure

in the black of night when no one else will answer—

and they don’t care if you drown in the depths of destruction.


Repeatedly, scream down the phone I’m awesome

when the man you’re trying to get your hooks in—

doesn’t want you in his bed and he’s not interested in laying

with you in yours. He’ll try to be gentle—you’ll still bulldoze

—hoping you’ll both believe your lie.


I see you, a lost thirtysomething trying to trick us

into thinking you’re a party girl in her twenties—clinging

to the idea that beer will buoy your life up, make you interesting.





Basura

Oh, girl—I don’t like you,

but you crack so fast—and you look so lost

and scared. Your eyes are empty, blue puddles—

no one seems to notice (or care). You’ve trained

your friends—just as vapid as you—

to applaud your descent as an iconic move.

The #hotmess the #trainwreck they refuse

to turn away from, they’ve already got their tickets

to your destructive show. This is a photoshoot

you hold in your room when you’re alone and no

man will come ‘round. You’re strung out,

like you’ve swallowed more than whiskey and beer.


In one glimpse you’re a corpse on the floor—

you’ve always been a ghost longing for tragedy.




Marisa Silva-Dunbar is a Pushcart nominated poet. Her work has been featured in: Royal Rose Magazine, Pussy Magic, Bone & Ink, Amaryllis, Midnight-Lane Boutique, and Constellate Literary Journal. She graduated from the University of East Anglia with her MA in poetry. Marisa is the founder and EIC of Neon Mariposa Magazine. She has work forthcoming in Dear Reader, The Charles River Journal, Dark Marrow, and Apathy Press. You can follow her on Twitter @thesweetmaris.

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