manic pixie

when i say, i’m crazy, they hear,
                                                  i’m an adventure. when i tell them
about the disorder, they tell me

i am beautiful. i know i am
                                    beautiful. i also know i have
a disorder.    when they reach

through the phone
                                         with their words, i swat each
away, one by one (i have done

this before. found
                        him before. lost him

before).    when they ask me
             if i drink, and i say, too
                                               much, they hear: i am a party
girl. i will let you fuck me any way
                                                            you want.

               and it’s true. i will.

they don’t hear the other part of too much, the part that whispers
                        i will hurt after
                                               you do, i will start

                                 to press my face into your chest, try to burrow

a home out of your heart (they never hear
             that part. they never want
                                                       to).

---

CHARLOTTE COVEY is from St. Mary's County, Maryland. She currently lives in St. Louis, and she earned her MFA in Poetry in 2018. Her poetry is published or forthcoming in The Normal School, Salamander Review, CALYX Journal, the minnesota review, and The Monarch Review, among others. In 2015, she was nominated for an AWP Intro Journal Award. She is co-editor-in-chief of Milk Journal and managing editor of WomenArts Quarterly Journal.