Girl Sounds

By Kassidy McIntosh

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Call out to me pretty and harmless

body

lacquer smelling—fresh red fingernails

you bang gongs with cotton balls

zip your jaw up and trap your scream

inside

unshaven criminal, are you out tonight? are your lips moving?

she is classroom savvy—knobby kneed pretender

I find her extra-real,

dancing insidious dances then

hiding afterwards

she is a gum-popping child

big time addict—

I see her under cherry trees that I made up and I

see her in four-bedrooms that I made up and all the while

her eyes are closed

warm in the morning —she laughs at me

I call her a mirror

I ask if she knows any tricks

she says she can leave in the middle of the night

gentle atonement, unnaturally cool like

sorry is the sound of your breath—quick

tell a joke now

make a girl sound

say nothing