Legs and Thighs (Chicken Parts)

Performed at Paterson’s Voices of Poetry Event, Paterson, NJ - September 2018
Published in The Red Wheelbarrow Vol. 12 - September 2019

While you were between my thighs
Did you not see me

Able to eat a meal until you were satisfied?

I can’t savor each
mouthful of a spoiled dinner.

Because God bless me
and  my eyes
And blessed be your occupation
where my life was left behind

Sweat on the couch cushions and the indents
on my stomach
Interrupting you from all the good things. The foldings of my knees,
My curves saturated in moonlight or sunlight,
Mood lighting and car seats

To not notice how the stubble on my shins
Shown with animalistic splendor?

All the times you sat
between iliac crests,
A built-in throne worthy
of praise