Lee Ann Brown

117 REDO

Stop accusing me that I’ve been chicken
With payback for Desert Storm —
Dissed on your best girls
Whereto all bondages do tie me up

That I have frequently exchanged unknown fluids
And wasted away your own —
I’ve hoisted ass to ferry across sweet options
To flee from thee who one time did me suck

Book me — my mulishness and second down
In jiggers of hundred proof sunrise gather —
Bring me up to your mouth, your pout
Don’t shoot me with some new wake of hate

I testify in courts of love
My appealing constant apples prove

Lee Ann Brown is the author of In the Laurels, Caught (Fence Books, 2013), Crowns of Charlotte (Carolina Wren Press, 2013), The Sleep That Changed Everything (Wesleyan University Press, 2003), and Polyverse (Sun & Moon Press, 1999).