Cosmopolitan

A little girl is looking
at a
Cosmopolitan magazine

No more than 9
I wonder if she skips over
the words she doesn’t know

The headlines like
‘Naughty Tricks To Try On Your Man’
and
‘Just For His Thighs!’

Maybe she
Just looks at the pictures and
That’s almost worse
All spray tanned anorexia
Pulling their shirts open and
Fucking the camera
With their day-glow eyes
Full of an oily horror and a challenge

As if to say
“I know the secret to being
‘Happy With Your Naked Body’
And I can ‘Dress My Curves’
And these things have brought me happi-
ness.”

Someone is at the cash register
Screaming into her cellphone
And my hands are shaking
Until im dropping change everywhere
And every baby is crying and
Nobody will respond except
my Manager is shrieking about
Last Thursday
And how I left thirty minutes early and could
I please explain that to her?

Hi hows it going
Good you
Not bad
That’s all you can ask for
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