Confidence
is a Gothic Lolita bonnet named Emmaline-Sue and
when I pin her to my head as a dark halo and
tie ribbons across my wrists,
I am a fucking god
Arm in arm with my dark ruffled ladies,
Sipping tea under an oak downtown.
My menace partially obscured by her outstretched wings
Framing powder blush, deep lashes, and crosses on chains
Draped
Here and there
How sweetly she blinds me from the
Mundane spooks on the right and left
Fearlesness is her perched on my golden curls
A feral meditation on being forced to face what is directly ahead,
For she presses her lace into my cheek and whispers so sweetly
“you are fucking beautiful you unhinged angel of Satan.” And
I cannot help but strut a little sexier and smoother and
Cock my chin at the perfect angle, to set my lowered
Eyes on fire so when they rise to meet those of
My enemies, they fall weeping to their heels
Bloody and
Begging to kill themselves in
The chance it might
Make me smile.
SJC Spring 2023
Lucid Dreams 