Bathroom Stall Hearts

There are bathroom stalls for hearts who are lonely teenage girls eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches on the toilets at 1pm
knees pressed gently together, like a preserved flower under glass
sweat, peanut butter, and ennui is the glue
even God believes the female heart is a delicate fucking flower
that's why he made bathroom stalls the glass
but the bathrooms have no air conditioning and the peanut butter sticks to the roof of my mouth
and the girl with the triangle for a dress on the door makes sure my knees stay together
so i cannot walk
but stay a tactfully pinned butterfly,
take a little here, pull a little there,
sometimes i wish the drowsily drawn eyeliner wings that i copied from an issue of Cosmo would stretch out and carry me away
but instead i am a complacent dog
with an electric fence at the age of thirty
yes girl, good girl, stay young, good girl,
stay
beautiful,
good girl.
There are bathroom stalls for hearts who are lonely teenage girls eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches on the toilets at 1pm,
they are the bell jars for girls who are too young to have read the book about bell jars but know just as much as Esther Greenwood exactly what they do to a person
they stared at their reflection in it, got concussions against it, knew exactly what it was just not what it was called
and they love that we don't know it by first name
they get off on it,
stick their hands between their legs and shake,
that's right,
good girl,
stay in your fucking cage.

-anna sluder

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