What I mean when I say I’m as domestic as breakfast
(After Eve L. Ewing’s What I mean When I Say I am Sharpening My Oyster Knife)
by Zora Satchell
Editor’s Note: This poem is best viewed on a desktop due to the form
I mean I am a clementine
What I mean is that I take up
A deceiving kind of space, I fit in your hand
I’m bright and I catch your eye
Like a pretty little warning
You’re afraid to take your nails to my skin
Your fantasy is to leave me unblemished
Yet hesitantly you peel me away
The citrus aroma lingers on your finger
You’re not as careful as you should be
My juice is sweet but it makes the
paper cuts on your hands sting.
Steaming in your favorite mug
I am coffee
Black, deep, swirling bitter and mean
Rage to your taste buds
Burning your throat
I know what it’s like
to be consumed Unaltered
No sugar or half and half cream
What I mean is you’re addicted
to the way I keep you going.
I know what it’s like to
have your codependence
Your resentful need
I mean that I am the plate of waffles
On a sunday after church
What I mean is I’m your reward for sitting
patiently and hearing God’s word
Perfectly golden brown
Warm butter and crystals of brown sugar
Syrup flooding the compartments
What I mean is that Maple is sticky and sweet
And makes you crave salvation only from me
Isn’t that a delicious kind of blasphemy
What I mean is that you have dreamt of me
Soft cake type of dough
I’m homemade,
No leggo my eggo
No toaster pop
I took my time being formed
You won’t regret me
Zora Satchell is a Black queer poet who writes about mental illness, family, and friendship. She believes that poetry creates space to explore and heal from trauma as well as allow us to imagine new worlds. She is a member of the Estuary Collective and holds a degree in Ethnic Studies from Colorado State University. She is obsessed with movies and writes about film shorts for Drunk Monkeys Literary Magazine. She also serves as a reader for Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review and is the assistant editor of Kissing Dynamite Poetry.When she is not writing she is obsessively consuming pop culture. She loves good dance music and hanging out with her cat Bilbo. You can find her on twitter @thecasualrevolt where she lets her typos run wild.