In the Bathroom of Apt. 3E by Teresa McMahon

THOUGHT
I have the urge to take my clothes off and scrub the bathtub.

TEXT
I feel like a sexy Cinderella when I do this.

TEXT
No seriously this could be a porno.

TEXT
Don’t you wish you could be here?

LYSOL ALL PURPOSE CLEANER
Allow product to sit to penetrate soil.
Hazards to humans and domestic animals.

MEMORY
(What does CR mean? A nurse said looking at vial 1 of 2 today).
It means cockroach.

AUTOCORRECT
I wish we had open mucus here.

AUTOCORRECT
I’d sleep in a tent faithfully with you.

AUTOCORRECT
Yes she said it happened to her once after taking a hot shit.

MEMORY
Pour bleach down drains to kill cockroaches, said the Serbian man who cared for the place.

TEXT
I don’t want my friends to die.

TEXT
I don’t know how not to be attractive to you.

TEXT
Baby, I’m ready.

 
 
 
THOUGHT
I’m too sick for this.

AUTOCORRECT
My voice was like raspberries.
 

AUTOCORRECT
I think I want to end things with Hands.

 
 
 
MEMORY
The man I dated before you blacked out and pissed on my desk.
MEMORY
He was an alcoholic.
MEMORY
His face was red.

 
 
 
TEXT
Sick or not I always enjoy listening to your beautiful voice.
 

TEXT
Ha ha are you drunk?

TEXT
You sounded good to me.

 
 

QUESTION
Where did all this hair come from?
 
 

STORY
As little girls we’d pick off leaves from bushes surrounding the yard
and we’d fold them, stick them in our underwear and pretend to be women.
We didn’t know about the blood just yet.
 
 

TEXT
Just show them your pretty smile.
TEXT
I thought you were dying.
TEXT
Now send a picture without the dress.

Teresa McMahon lives in Chicago, where she is a second year MFA Poetry candidate at Columbia College Chicago. She comes from Dorchester, Massachusetts.
 

Other things you might want to read:

There is Nothing, Except by Ray Shea Three poems by Samiah Haque When We Used Our Hands by CJ Hallman Massachusetts Spring by April Ranger