Ravenous Rust
(a shade of lip gloss in the Fall Collection)

You wore so much lip gloss
that I wondered when you kiss
if his attentions don't just slip
from the swell of your lips
with an inhuman taste to contemplate
where touch and raw sensation should reign.
They are like your soul, coated.
And I'm reminded to my surprise
of the steel handrail in the stairwell of my high school,
painted years-thick in hues of tan and blue
permitting us to trick ourselves into forgetting
that rust will overtake us all.

01/17/2004

Author's Note: Girl two desks up and one row over applied lip gloss every quarter hour in class today, like clockwork. "Need a lip gloss boost in your America." --Tori Amos.

Posted on 01/17/2004
Copyright © 2024 Lacy D Phillips