KARYNA MCGLYNN

Who Doesn’t Love a Glamazon in a Cherry Red Leotard

Only someone you can’t trust—
someone who doesn’t know what happens
on the Five, Six, Seven, or Eight.
They’re either lying or they Love
Almost Nothing.
 
I’ve always loved women
who come on Too Strong:
women who interrupt me—
who blow smoke in my face
or wear Opium in the summer.
 
I’ve always loved women
with huge hair & melodramatic hangovers,
women with long stories & loud laughs:
the stunning gushes of two women
fan-girling each other into a fever—
“You’re FIRE!”/ “No, girl, YOU’RE fire.
This is a form of Girl Magic.
This is a Tomato-Red lip:
a High Contrast Warning
that never works, a Lady Tied Up
with Loose Ropes & Tight Stripes
—an invitation to Look without Touching.
 
I’ve always loved Jane Fonda staring
straight through the Magnavox
& into the beige rooms of
of our Mothers’ Insecurities—
Her question looks like a come-on
but sounds like a dare:
“Are you ready to do The Workout?”
I want to kiss her then kick her ass.
I’m all up in these magenta legwarmers
so “Yes, Bitch, I’m Ready.”

Karyna McGlynn is a writer & collagist living in Memphis. Her lastest poetry collection Hothouse (Sarabande Books) was a New York Times Editor's Choice. Other books include The 9-Day Queen Gets Lost on Her Way to the Execution, I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl, and Scorpionica. Her poems have recently appeared in The Kenyon Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Ninth Letter, Georgia Review, New England Review, The Best American Poetry blog, and The Academy of American Poet’s Poem-A-Day. Karyna is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Christian Brothers University and teaches with Tennessee Young Writers Workshop. Find her at www.karyna.io or on instagram/twitter @karynamcglynn.

Karyna’s work previously appeared in January 2004, November 2005, March 2006, November 2006, and October 2015.