Melissa Barrett earned a BA from Wittenberg University and an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. She received an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award in 2012, and her poem set “Thigh Gap and Other Poems” won First Place in Narrative’s Sixth Annual Poetry Contest. Her collaborations with visual artist Pete Burkeet have been exhibited in film festivals in New York and Vancouver. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, and teaches at an urban public middle school.


FIRST PLACE WINNER


Rhymes with Thigh Gap and Other Poems

by Melissa Barrett


Rhymes with Thigh Gap

Why don’t we call it a whorehome. Or
a rustic slut cottage. A sleazy French
chateau. How easy is it to dress up
undressing. To elevate the taboo.
Add an adverb like harmoniously,
subtract the verb screw. Who hasn’t
artfully photographed their nude body?
Positioned an IKEA lamp to illuminate
a thigh gap? I’d love a relief map
of so many bodies. Ovaries are the size
of almonds and a uterus grows to become
a hotel lobby. Meanwhile a boner looks
like Thailand, kind of. I love Thai food.

People on couch
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