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"Still Dreaming" by Larissa Monique Hauck

ode to Rihanna performing love on the brain live at the Benz Arena [Berlin, 2016] by m. mick powell

​here’s an addendum for my consequential orgasm,
for breakage & blue contusion, mercy & chocolate
leather lace, for lime green tongue kiss in the Lambo
& the clavicle snap & that night in ‘09 & beyond & before
& because i was a girl & girled by the thing i loved, its
static aching desire, its lavish want combed in amber--

let them watch as i beg for whine, for the wall
to become something softer, my shatter a release
of red monarchs instead. indeed, i needed to forgive
my father in order to forgive Chris & Donnie &
Miguel & Costello & Costello & Costello for
the red red of their palms, their minor intrusions,

their barks toward the moon, their inability to find
the clitoris or the decency to look me in the eyes
as they came. sure, i am one cheap trick away from
the chandelier, one good last grind against the pole
pulsing with feedback, my cunt cut straight out of
your wettest dream, rolled wrist & skin soaked in

neroli, marshmallow, my mouth a brutal cinnamon
scarred by the sharpest nail. like most teenage dream
girls, i wanted first to be loved, then to be wanted,
& i wanted to learn what to call the body, what i
wished done to mine—to say see, see: a fist can
be a tender thing, too; a thing that can go inside.

m. mick powell (she/her) is an Aries, a queer Black femme poet, and a professor at UConn in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her work has been published in Frontier Poetry, Voicemail Poems, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. She enjoys roller skating, digital collaging, and chasing waterfalls. www.mickpowellpoet.com / IG @mickmakesmagic.art

Larissa Monique Hauck is a queer visual artist who graduated from the Alberta University of the Arts in 2014, where she received a BFA with Distinction. Her artwork has been featured in multiple regional and national group exhibitions as well as a growing number of international exhibitions. She has been selected for inclusion in events such as Nextfest 2018 (Edmonton, AB), Nuit Rose 2016 (Toronto, ON), and the 9th Annual New York City Poetry Festival 2019 (New York, US). Her drawings and paintings have also been featured in publications such as Creative Quarterly (US), Wotisart Magazine (UK), Minerva Rising (US), and various others.
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