MICRO

I Haven’t Mastered the Mirror

By AJANAE DAWKINS | 21 NOV 2022

Any muscle can be trained to resist. To flex against
metal or idea. You can train the body against
the body. I’m not a professional but in the mirror,
I trace the weakest band of tissues from blood
to brain. Against them, I press my mouth to say
now, I will dream myself in love with myself. I will
dream myself beautiful as rose lace. Ice forest.
Sprawling sun. Yes, maybe, bits of the moon peak
from between my teeth. Maybe, I’m blushing
everywhere. Maybe, from between my legs, lilies
are whispering to God.

Ajanae Dawkins is a poet, performance artist, and educator. Ajanae has been published in The Rumpus, The BreakBeat Poets Black Girl Magic Anthology, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and more. She is the winner of the Tinderbox Poetry Journal’s Editors Prize and the George B. Hill Poetry Prize. She is a fellow of The Watering Hole and Pink Door. She received her MFA from Randolph College. Ajanae is currently a co-host of VS Podcast, the Theology Editor for the EcoTheo Review, and an Alford Scholar at Methodist Theological School of Ohio.

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