What rough Beast | Poem for October 1, 2018

Amanda Forrester
you don’t want to remember

you know
by now you know
character traits and character acting
like a fool in love
with yourself you sit
alone lonely grayed voices
call clear and you comeback

why and ask why when
by now you know
you know nothing
as if your mother bottle
fed you groomed you combed
your hair
it’s like this, she said, one hundred strokes
one hundred strikes with a leather belt
both for shininess
welting your thighs you

remember when a man’s hand
touches your thigh backs and takes you
back then back out now
blackout what you know



Amanda Forrester’s creative work has appeared in the Sandhill Review. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Tampa and lives in Dade City, Florida.

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