Call Me Karma

by Aidan Aragon

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Being a beautiful woman
is hard when you’re not,
like seaweed tangled
in a hairbrush I claw
through my own body
beachcomber too broad
for a sundress, marigolds
between my teeth 
like dead gnats, nip-
ping at the day
like salt and tequila,
I am awkward and wide, 
a laugh at a funeral, 
joking about burning the church 
down, I’m a flamer sword swallower 
gull dipping into a dead hand 
pulling back a tide of regrets,
a null gender withering 
away with the rapidly collapsing
sun, standing on the beach
it’s like the end of the world
and I am so small it’s euphoric,
gender affirming landscapes,
the seal’s bark
like a lovely man
in whose hand
I am just—
being a beautiful woman
is all about the hurt, 
or so I’ve been told
thigh deep in water 
so cold I can forget
and being a beautiful woman 
 is all about how lost 
I am in the swell 

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Aidan Aragon is a poet, mediocre trombone player, and person who cries watching most movies. Their work has been featured by Peach Mag, Perhappened, and Voicemail Poems among others. You can find them online @aidanaragon.