Ocean smears her menstrual blood on my forehead,
a ritual to return my cycle—lost to a YouTube diet 
that taught me how to survive on bananas.

Unbothered by what we are pressured to dot
with a surgeon’s felt tip, she shows me how to sit
in lotus, vulva open with palms, her sapphic howl

drumming off the crimson walls, she holds
a spoonful of raspberry red leaf to my lips.
I don’t even wonder how many calories are in it.

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Carson Wolfe (They/them)
Carson Wolfe is a Mancunian poet. In 2021, they were an Aurora prize winner and a Button video contest winner. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming with Fourteen Poems, Rattle, The Penn Review, and Button Poetry. You can find them on Instagram @vincentvanbutch.