Break the Mirror in Your Youth

Photo by Tripadvisor

I used to go without a bra
once, too: breasts — smooth
and shiny as two eggplants
under a tank top,
under the umbrella —
all the boys’ stares, heavy
as breath on my back.

The beauty of babes
is currency.

But beauty has less
of a shelf life
than vegetable oil
and MSG.

Tony Tucci once confessed
he takes all his first dates
out for Chinese food.

“You know,” he said,
“those shitty ones
with the fluorescent lights;
real, unattractive lighting.”

“If she still looks hot
under them lights,
then I know
she’s a keeper.”

Fluorescent lights don’t lie
like we do.

Today, a stale cookie
shaped like a deformed
pilgrim collar tells me:

Break the mirror
in your youth.

Poem from my debut book, BEFORE THE BIG BANG MAKES A SOUND.