there is a little girl that lives inside my mouth.
she spins stories from the cobwebs
in the corners of a hushed attic,
her voice a silken thread trailing through the dusky air,
whispering secrets to the dust mites caught in slanting sunbeams.
in the hollows of my cheeks,
she builds her fragile palace,
walls woven from forgotten lullabies
from a broken ballerina music box that plays only
when the north wind sighs.
she dances alone as she always wanted to be a ballerina,
her feet brushing softly over my tongue,
calluses cause me to dry heave black swan feathers.
an imaginary ballet occurs in the cavern of my throat.
her hands craft origami creatures from my fears,
cranes wading through the marsh of my molars,
foxes slipping between the cracks of my teeth,
they vanish upon hearing her laughter that escapes,
fractured, feral, shredding the air with
a butchered hymn.
the melody rising like a mist,
notes dripping from my lips
like condensation on a widow’s window.
a mist, a canvas for writing a Help sign.
The cries she lets out comes out backwards,
mistaken for the sound of ecstasy.
in the cavity of my mouth, her sanctuary,
where the boiler rumbles with the pressure of untold stories,
she tends to the fires that never quite extinguish, always smoldering.
in my marrow, she inscribes her legacy,
a script of bone-white ink, invisible yet indelible.
there is a little girl that lives inside my mouth,
and when I speak, it is with her words.
she will never leave.
she is an everlasting whisper
in the hallowed halls of this bony labyrinth.
Dereka M. Smith is a burgeoning Mississippi poet based in Houston, Texas. Her affair with poetry began in high school in the fertile ground of the South's literary heritage. Now, she enhance her skills at the Imprint House based in the H-Town, where workshops with local fellows and talented writers are challenging and inspiring her daily to grow and expand her creative expression. While doing this, she is currently working on her first poetry collection “Swamp Girl” which explores youth, deep reflections on childhood trauma, mental illness, spirituality, and the nuanced experience of being an African American woman in America.
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