Visit from Mother

You sleep on the floor in my room

in the modelling apartment

I share with eight other girls

You open the fridge

to see what we’re eating

Butter Spray, Diet Coke, Jell-O

Do you think we’re clichés

living out of stained suitcases

shaving our legs with shampoo

carving our names into bed-frames

We clog the sink with hair

Our hair is everywhere!

Heather locks herself in the bathroom

Priscilla sleeps on the couch

Barbara goes out

and never comes back

I’m so ashamed of you

with your hairy armpits

You make so much noise with your body

breathing and sweating and saying things like

Your safety is my top priority

Marc Jacobs tells you to wait downstairs

while I walk around for them

Next

When I cry you feed me pine nuts

You know what’s just enough

and what’s too much

A photographer tells you to wait in a café somewhere

He shuts the door and turns the lock

In the photo a shadow

eats half my face

the other half is one big eye

and mouth turned down

like an old petal