Vanessa Aricco

hula hooping 

was the only thing

i ever won a 

blue ribbon for

i could not run

i could not climb

but i could make 

circles with my hips

orbiting

my body 

my flesh 

thrusting

keeping the 

world up

was sex 

power or

boredom

like tentacle 

or tongue 

fierce venom 

of a killer 

a red dick 

wounded

intimate but 

not personal

Smoking stale cigarettes

Drinking St. Vincent red

Cum stains in my hair

Smells like Jr. High

Staring at the small

White kitchen table

Vanessa Aricco is a multimedia poet living in Kansas City. She's released two poetry albums, The Midnight Rush and Human Animal, and occasionally works on a free-form audio project called Story Idea. She was a Charlotte Street Foundation 2019-22 Studio Resident where she completed her first full-length poetry manuscript. vanessaaricco.com