Amy Pence

Dangerous Blonde

Glutted with extras, the film

churns on. As the second

reel loads, I face you

near the concessions, fantastical

creatures take up space

beside us. You

comment on my hair

your eyes constantly roving

to the mammaries of others.

No matter, our secret’s safe.

I won’t let on that once

you rooted in my body,

without my permission, then moaned

into your pants. That night

I buried your name in my lawn,

your car was torched by Tuesday.

After the cinema, no one talks to me

the entire walk home, my shield

impermeable, though

I watch their thoughts,

winking exit signs.

A.Pence has published one chapbook—Skin's Dark Night—and two full collections, The Decadent Lovely, and Armor, Amour. Honored with the Claire Keyes Poetry Award and published in The Antioch Review, The Oxford American, and Juked, her forthcoming hybrid book on Emily Dickinson-- [It] Incandescent-- is forthcoming from Ninebark Press.