That mouth. I would die
to curl up on that tongue
like a cat on a rug. The gap
between his teeth is a window
through which I can see all my
pent up lusts, the tormented teen
nights I stared up at the ceiling
whispering, “God,
don’t let me go blind,”
my fingers slick with
freshly-squeezed juices
of fleshy forbidden fruit.
Jesus Christ. His eyes
meet mine. Blueish silver.
Two new dimes. But
that mouth. What I wouldn’t
give to creep up a ladder
and sleep there, letting
his whiskey stained
breath ruffle my hair like
feathers on a bird in a
drawling Southern summer
breeze. He smiles. I
freeze. He quotes
Faulkner. I don’t hear.
Every word that drips
from those lips is
sex.
Tawni Waters is a writer, actor, and gypsy. She has an MFA in Fiction Writing from the University of New Orleans. Her work has been published in Best Travel Writing 2010, Bridal Guide Magazine, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Albuquerque Journal, Albion Review, ABQ Arts Magazine,So To Speak, and Conceptions Southwest, among others. She was a regular contributor Albuquerque’s East Mountain Telegraph. In 2010, she won the Grand Prize in the Solas Awards Travel Writing Competition. In 2009, she won the Editor’s Award for Fiction from Ellipses Magazine. Her novel, Empire of Dirt, is poised for international success, which is a euphemism for “has been rejected by every agent in the U.S. and three in Canada.” She lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her children and a menagerie of wayward animals. In her spare time, she humanely evicts spiders from her floorboards and plays Magdalene to a minor rock god.
Burlesque Press 