Piece of Me

cw: rape

my cat bites whenever she doesn’t want
to be touched / which is most times / i
wish i could learn such feral refusal /
but i am soft / not like her fur, a smooth
enticement / but like a peach ripening /
in the summer sun // he sank his face /
into my pink flesh / i ruminated on the
bite-marks for a year / before i moved on //
but still i think of him whenever people /
speak of peaches and teeth / whenever
i hear his name / i run my fingers
through my cat’s marled fur, receive a
nip in return / juice lisps from the pink
ring of dots where her rebuke found me //
anyway, this just to say / i wish to never
be touched without my consent again /
the threat of a sharply-lined bite / my
new exuberance / my fanged stone fruit

Michaela Mayer is a 25-year-old elementary school teacher and poet from Virginia. Her works have been previously published in Perhappened, Feral Poetry, Survivor Lit, Claw & Blossom, Barren Magazine, and others. She has poems forthcoming with Olit, The Lickety~Split, and Monstering Mag and can be found on Twitter @mswannmayer5.