Poetry Winner in Quarto’s 2023 Spring Print Edition.
This piece was first published in Quarto’s 2023 Spring Print Edition.
Illustration by Mel Wang
i’m going to crank you open
he says,
fingers in my mouth—
no, you won’t, i think,
you can’t, actually.
sure, i’ll open wide, tongue to the side, face towards you
but that is not what open means;
you’ve never seen me open,
my lips will split at the crease,
my jaws will unhinge, serpentine,
sir, i will slurp you up
blue gloves and all
i have more teeth than you could ever dream
sorry, i’ve got to crank you open here
it’s just a tight space
back here near the wisdom teeth—
of course it is, i think,
this is where i hide my desire,
this is where i rot.
Anne Overton is a senior at Barnard studying psychology.