"untitled" by Nikia Chaney

untitled

you keep asking men to look
at you to call you first by each number then by
your name a foreign word to sizzle and make

the room swallow the tv with
buzz cuts and bellies a swell to middle age
to close both his eye and yours

but it is getting too late to pair up
to be couple mama daddy’s big piece of chicken
plate or holding it down in bed all

scarfswaddled and snore his of course as he would
by the fan where you he would might reel
each day’s discontent to euphony and breath

too bright the tv the chuck of it sweats
the sounds swings loud as the gray hair the pillow
you don’t belong in these years one twisting to ten

screenblind you keep asking men to
say you are enough this hushful
this has to half to haves be

nikia chaney

Nikia Chaney is the author of us mouth (University of Hell Press, 2018), and two chapbooks, Sis Fuss (Orange Monkey Publishing, 2013) and Ladies, Please (Dancing Girls Press, 2013). She has been published in Iowa Review, 491, Saranac, Pearl, Sugar House, Welter, and Vinyl. She is the founding editor of Jamii Press, an independent press for writers who are involved in community-service projects. She teaches at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, California.

Headshot: Ginger Galloway

Photo Credit: Staff