Mela Blust: We're Not Safe
Photo: Joanna C. Valente
girl
whisper your voice is too loud girl speak up no one can hear you girl change you are so behind these times girl stop changing we can't keep up. girl go home you are where you shouldn't be dark alley lit bar sunny day same street old town new town, just stay home. girl come out we need your service your voice your body your loving your sex your mothering your care girl amp it up you are needed girl calm down you're too this you're too that you're too much too little too late not enough. girl squeeze yourself into things you never wanted to fit into girl stay in this stasis this constant this uprising. we want girl voice girl shape but less girl never girl just girl thing. do what they want what they say. god, never what the girl wants and now girl just listen its time to go girl fire the cannon girl run we're not safe.
girl go now just stand make a stand.
girl.
this home is too tight
on the other side of this chrysalis you're a butterfly.
Mela Blust is a moonchild, and has always had an affinity for the darkness. She has been writing poetry since she was a child. Her work has appeared in The Bitter Oleander, The Sierra Nevada Review, Isacoustic, Rust+Moth, Anti Heroin Chic, Califragile, Rhythm & Bones Lit, The Stray Branch, South Broadway Ghost Society, and many more. Her debut poetry collection, Skeleton Parade, is forthcoming with Apep Publications in 2019. She is the social media coordinator for Animal Heart Press, a contributing editor with Barren Magazine, as well as a poetry reader for The Rise Up Review. More of her work can be found at https://melablust.com/, and she can be followed at https://twitter.com/melablust.
