Year One, First Friday of May
LIZZO EATING OUT THE CENTER OF A BURRITO IS FEMINIST DISCOURSE™️
I watch the three-minute video
over & over. Her decisive
tortilla turn, first mid-section bite.
Dribbling ranch & sriracha
her gaze makes me blush fever
warm. Take it. In your hands. Like
this. Start here. This is a vegan
burrito: no meat, no phantom
phallic inflection in the flavor.
Just tender filling, sauce falling
softly on the plate. I can taste
the cilantro & lime. Lizzo chews,
tells me to reapply the hot sauce
after each swallow. Watch me now,
as it breaks in two halves: one
for now, one for later. Another time,
another lunch. Me & Lizzo
looking at each other over mess
of avocados & beans. Lettuce & rice.
Falling a little more in love
with each mouthful. I imagine
how to curl my tongue just right.
Roseanna Alice Boswell is a queer poet from Upstate New York. Her work has appeared in: RHINO, Whiskey Island, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, Roseanna holds an MFA from Bowling Green State University and is a Ph.D. student in English - Creative Writing at Oklahoma State University.Her chapbook, Imitating Light, was chosen as the 2021 Iron Horse Literary Review Chapbook Competition winner. Roseanna’s first full-length collection, Hiding in a Thimble, was published with Haverthorn Press in 2021. She currently haunts the Midwest with her husband and cat.