juliette givhan
I killed another of your children this morning,
sprayed him with Lysol
(orange blossom scented,)
& watched him fall from a web
hung carelessly close to my mirror.
If it’s any consolation—
his body missed the toilet,
crashed to the dirty tile instead.
His legs did a death dance
as he choked, all those digits
mad with movement
in their last moments…
I’m sorry
but trust me, I get the irony
of a Black girl killing something
harmless, just because she’s afraid
of what it might do—
know the lack of consequence
for wiping out something
people have decided is a monster.
***
Juliette Givhan is a Black poet who writes about myths and memes. Her work appears in ANMLY Magazine, Change Seven Magazine, Two Hawks Quarterly, with forthcoming poems in Pidgeonholes Magazine and baest Journal.