A Painting of Me by The Muscle Boy in Shorts

by Aaliyah Anderson


            Bell peppers taste like flavored water, our friend reiterates—the same
absolute as God smelling
            like oil paints. You perceive this as kerosene
drips on me: your affection &
            my lungs demanding to be useful
only for you (a man to award).
            Well, how are you? Fucking Blitzed…
whatever that means, I’m sure, will be found written in a dead
            language today
(& “I half-love you” will be shared between our gums).
            How does pity taste high?
Probably the same as it tastes dead.
            I don’t know. At least, you know how to
pronounce my name. Otherwise,
            we’d both be embarrassed!


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Aaliyah Anderson (she/her) is a junior majoring in Literary Arts at her high school in Petersburg, VA. Her work is forthcoming in Sour Cherry Mag, miniMAG, coalitionworks, and elsewhere. She's obsessed with storytelling.