ELLEN BOYETTE

EVERYTHING TASTES LIKE CANDY

In the dressiest of minefields
in the conundrum of footwear.

In the looped youth obsession with block
letters on bracelets in the hermit’s

heart. In the foreground of a Cadillac
in the background of a pomegranate.

Wrap me in foil, put me in the Airfryer,
wheel me out of the dereliction, the hospital,

the fishtank. I like to be carried from
my womb to your brain. All I want

is a handful of cash and gum to chew
like a cow in the mud.

Read your phone. Go to heaven.
In the harpsichords of yesteryear

in the fridge humming, in the bazaar
in the bazaar I saw you running

toward a fur coat and thought
the world a superb lie. Now

it is my turn to pull apart a stranger
with my teeth. Psych—no such thing

as stranger. They said you taste like
Candy. Everything tastes like candy.

Ellen Boyette is a PhD student in English and Creative Writing with a concentration in Film Studies at the University of Georgia. Her area of specialization is Occult Poetics. She received her MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a recipient of the Alberta Kelly Fellowship as well as a Teaching-Writing Fellowship. Her first book of poetry, BEDIEVAL, was a finalist at Slope Editions Books, CSU Press, and Inside the Castle. She was also the recipient of an Action Books Fokus Feature. Her work appears in jubilat, The Columbia Review,  Denver Quarterly, Ninth Letter, Prelude, Bennington Review, New Delta Review, poets.org, Tagvverk,  and elsewhere. She is the author of two chapbooks, NITROUS OR MY VELVET KNIFE and CUFFING SEASON.