OKBOMB

I lost sleep over you    my wide, cigarette-flinging snow angel,
falcon princess
                                  I laid in bed already defeated by you
                Tap water and glistening floss
                I think the girl at the ammo store is in love with me
When she looks into my eyes does she see you
                reflected back like a mirror in a crowded theater?
Stiff drinks and that long walk home, all the way home
                I keep you in my wallet
                                I grit you in my teeth
                Nobody on earth understands this throb in my side
the gassed army men in my head
                                It’s you, my oil slicked dove—
                So come out in April. Come out to the street,
                See the morning sun refracted against the glass panes
America’s Kids Daycare Center. Shrapnel. Graceless collapse.
                See the broken mommies and
                                                look at the widening gap!
See what I have done for you.
                Smell the hot propaganda.
My tonka truck woman.           My love is bloodied at the mouth.
                              My love is a weapon of mass destruction.

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Jasmine Ledesma is a writer based in New York whose work has appeared in places such as Crazyhorse, Rattle, and [PANK] among others. Her work has been nominated twice for Best of The Net and three times for the Pushcart Prize. She has been short-listed for the American Short Fiction Halifax Ranch Prize. She was awarded the Patricia Clearly Miller Award while in the psychiatric hospital. Her debut novella Shrine has recently been released by Junk Press.