Three Poems by Stephanie Smith

DISPOSABLE YOU

pieces of you
splattered
on the bathroom wall
by the tampon dispenser

parts of you
discarded
in the garbage can
in the corner

disposable you
who didn’t want you
anymore?



JUST BECAUSE

I do your laundry every Thursday
because I know you won’t
I put up with the bloodstains
and the stale perfume
on the collars of your workshirts

Just because

Last week I cooked you chicken
while you sat cross-legged
in the backroom
and smoked a bowl

I didn’t even question
the corpse you brought home
and stuck in the closet
behind boxes
of old photographs

But I sleep with a pillow
between us now
A blade beneath the mattress

Just in case



THE VOYEURS OF A DREAM GONE BY

I dream of sex with a movie star
(I’m not saying who)
and a group of voyeurs
(in all sizes and colors)
One with a saw
determined to cut me in two
And I wake up feeling
so dirty and violated
like the victim of a jealous rage,
a bloated corpse tangled in bloodstained sheets
who the cops won’t find for a week