#Praise for Lukewarm Tortilla Soup & Dog Hair on the Upholstery

[lifeinpoetry]

& the Texas man who convinced me to hand over the lockbox & made me something akin to love since love has always been shame & pain & unhinging the blade before he cleaned me out, picked clean my bones & it’s taken nine months & the ghost birth to stop checking his updates, praise the god that left me empty. For what I have to fill, I’ll find & when I find I’ll swallow whole. So much soggy, lukewarm, bread-soft praise.

— Jennifer Givhan, from "Praise for Lukewarm Tortilla Soup & Dog Hair on the Upholstery," Belly to the Brutal