"Let's Be Monsters" by Maia Brown-Jackson

Let’s be monsters. Let’s be witches and bitches and crones and just hideous. Let’s be powerful. Let’s take and take and take and grab the world, just fucking hold on with claws and teeth and refuse to let go. And let’s be gluttonous. Let’s devour. Let’s see what we want, what delights us, and let’s inhale it with no regard for propriety. With no regard for you. Let’s be insolent. Let’s be wanton. Let’s be ugly. Let’s show our teeth as a warning sign before we sink them into your neck. Let’s be savage and angry. Let’s say, This is for me. This is because I want. This is because I exist. This is because I take up space, as much as I want, and more, and I survive despite your best efforts to tamp me down, and I will fucking wear my defiance like a punch to the gut or— Go ahead. Tell me the red on my lips is too suggestive. It’s my fucking mouth. And I use it to bite more than anything else. ————————————– Maia Brown-Jackson called us from Philadelphia, PA. voicemailpoems.org/submit/ facebook.com/voicemailpoems x.com/voicemailpoems bsky.app/profile/voicemailpoems.bsky.social instagram.com/voicemailpoems