Nina and Frida Enter the Chat

By FELICE BELLE

these biddies with their deadbolt backs/ take naps
while i construct/ canvas from corset cast

art does not wait until you are well

what they did not understand—the training was classical

chopin, motherfuckers/ carry on like she some backwater bluesy
least common denominator/ reduced me

addiction is not a hobby

no one will hear what i see/ unless they inhabit my body
surgeons don’t count/ the wrong lover, maybe

muse is reality

want more than you’re given/ be difficult as necessary

loving a man/ who belongs to the world/ is like lying in lava
no one asks if he can/ have it all

let him knock you down/ throw you up
against the wall/ put a frame on it

i don’t want the preacher/ i want the pulpit

 

Felice Belle is a poet and playwright. Her debut collection, Viscera, is forthcoming from Etruscan Press. She is a lecturer in the low-residency MFA program at St. Francis College in Brooklyn and chief storyteller for the global nonprofit Narrative 4.

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Nina and Frida Enter the Chat

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