KAILEY TEDESCO / LEVITATE

My teeth lift first,         crack
with lipstick,    my soul slides from my body,

a matchbox –               I stand
dressed in bell sleeves on my childhood porch.

My mother calls to me                         & a cone
of ocean           siphons me upwards,    voice first.

I am a bar of soap        this instant,
             shell-shaped, so prone to foaming

                        over.                My blood-glimmer spills
                        equations on my arm:

physical mediums        are real & my wide
              open mouth chokes on

imaginary numbers.                 My mother
             is back –

            she says I’ve forgotten             my ring
on the kitchen sink.                 

She says to remember

                                    Elsie who took the stairs
               after her cremation, soiled her

childhood bed.                         It is here I understand
                          the finality of leaving.

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Kailey Tedesco is the author of These Ghosts of Mine, Siamese (Dancing Girl Press) and the forthcoming collection, She Used to be on a Milk Carton (April Gloaming Publishing). She is the editor-in-chief of Rag Queen Periodical and a staff writer for Luna Luna Magazine. She also performs with the Poetry Brothel. Her work is featured or forthcoming in Prelude, Prick of the Spindle, OCCULUM, Flapperhouse, and more. For other information, please visit kaileytedesco.com.