THREE POEMS by STREGA CLARE MANNING
head side penny
emerging out from underneath
your comforter fortress.
cleaning your face with vanicream.
getting to work 15 minutes late
taffy tasting iced coffee
leaking in the car seat.
dunkin’ did you dirty today.
the only thing to celebrate
will be the sloth welly bandage
protecting a cuticle cut smile
on your pinky. the dull knife
out dances you
with an old lime wedge.
your armpits itch
from chafe, but you lift
chipped metal weights
into a press.
if this is all the universe
will hand over, you take it,
head-side penny in your pocket
for safekeeping.
the paternal cipher
i am thirty four
nancy drew games old
but the red headed sleuth
won’t age past eighteen.
forever bright from river heights.
somehow i’m
still a wet haired
pimply pink
post shower
middle schooler
swiveling in the stale office chair.
this outpost, the computer room,
in front of a PC used for taxes.
dad and i dive into dated graphics
as we put our heads together,
scrawling out cheat codes.
we clamor through
archaic puzzles, high fiving
until the game is won.
our love once translated
through trips to best buy,
but these days we no
longer share a language.
the last clue would be
our final conversation, my
hair half-crimson
ignoring the mystery
of unanswered text messages.
mt. ridge road
He-
He-
He-
white sedan snaking around the bend
Hisses.
melted man face follows, says he Likes me
nearby an elderly woman tilts forward into her trash can
Escaping.
warp speed, standing on someone else’s porch
even the sun is no longer warm
Stinging.
fresh tears drown the sound of screeching tires
moving away
a few minutes
a few steps from home
is it Safe now
is it Safe
am I ever-
a black sports bra deflates in the trash bin.
strega clare manning (she/her) is a queer baltimore based poet who loves her cats. she often writes about living with mental illness, experiences that piss her off, and her identity. her work appears in fifth wheel press, bi+ quarterly, voicemail poems, and others. when she's not writing, she pc games, lifts heavy things, and obsesses over her nephew. you can find her @stregaclare on instagram, and stingingsentences.substack.com.