For Pick Me Up Songs

For Pick Me Up Songs
by Gwenyth Wheat

I would rather be alone for the rest of my life

than be with someone who does not adore me like my cheeks

do, asking the sunshine for some glitter after winter’s frozen nightmare

like my lungs capturing breaths of empty space when my knee stops shaking with nerves

like the curve of my spine when I finally settle in a yard of blue flowers

like my toes when I finally slip out of cactus-print socks & into a bath

& someone who does adore me will understand

bubble baths need to stop being romanticized

& that someone (a star perhaps) will fall knee deep

into the sheets awaiting their turn for the wash

then dry tears of laughter from my face & know I’m laughing at my own

joke around about my electric — cosmic — energy

dancing at sunrise like morning dew is club sweat & I’m just getting started

& the Star will bleed & breathe gold sparkles knowing each cell

of mine remain such a precious honor to know

how when I fixate on Taylor Swift’s I Bet You Think About Me

I imagine butterflies float out of a teapot—teaching the world: dainty can still be dangerous

someone once told me, I’m kind of scared

of those dogs because they’re so well behaved & maybe that’s why

at noon I run home because I forgot my mascara

my lashes aching for their own boost

with Taylor vibrating from the back pocket

of my Kohl’s ripped jeans that yes, I shouldn’t have paid full price for

because they have holes in them (as the joke always goes) but I did

& they fit just right

like Cinderella’s shoes but no one really notices & I wouldn’t want them to anyway

because I’ve told at least three people this week

Everyone else has to catch up instead

& I will always dance

because the dirty chai tea lattes I make for breakfast

the steam & hot water I let imprint on my skin

the twenty minutes it takes for me to curl on top of curls

remain treasures & thank you to all the lyrics upon tears upon night drives upon dancing again.

I adore you too.