Meditation Vampire Girl
she’s licking the long neck of birch and silence, she’s luring uglyhot girls into long philosophies and knotting knees on stranger’s couches, she’s latemorning lurking in bed, she’s sinking her teeth into into the flesh of the mountain to taste those rivers of iron, she’s walking at night like it’s a ritual, footdrums on the sidewalk, she’s saying in these small towns, i feel safe like a man feels safe, she’s started walking like a greaser, she’s unwinding you with her fingers between your shoulder blades, she’s sexysexy like murder (a quick fix, a long end), she’s neverwilting, she’s cold to men, she’s against the red brick in the alleyway when she can’t draw a single tablespoon of oxygen from the bar air, she’s staying in the moment, she’s burning up with desire, which is the opposite of staying in the moment, she’s sucking it all up, all the little details, (freckles, doublechin folds, good gaits) she’s oohing and ahhhing so good, she’s breathing like it’s on her todo list, she’s looking for the answer, she hears the blood going, going
Tara Labovich (they/them) resides in Iowa. Their teaching, poetry, and nonfiction has won awards such as the Pearl Hogrefe Grant, Adelaide Bender Reville Prize, among others, and is nominated for Best of the Net, as well as the Pushcart Prize and the Monarch Queer Literary Awards. Their writing can be read in journals such as Brevity, Crannog, Salt Hill, and the Citron Review. When they’re not working or writing, they’re out walking or offering free creative writing workshops in Central Iowa. You can find them to say hi on most social media sites at @taralabovich.