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This World is Not Good

Poetry by Jameka Williams


Especially to Kim Kardashian, tender
as an egg, crying, her mouth a busted yolk

would eat her roasted placenta three meals a day
to heal to the heart-shaped ache in her belly

asks herself: is there too much beauty in my diet
imagines her kidneys growing eyelashes, polished fingernails

why are the appetizers the shape of bullets
her meals fluttered or moaned once, had known fear

after playdates with Beyoncè she becomes so morbid
wonders if Apocalypse should ever come will we try to eat her

what color does starvation come in anyhow
how many loaves of bread can we break from her body

will famine reduce men to their essentials: salt and semen
what makes some women all steeled bone or chagrin

won’t she become gossamer, our last mother to suckle and teethe
how many licks does it take to get to the center of her soul

this world, regrettably, is poor with explanations:
if the End should come tomorrow, Kim concludes,

I will give them just a little taste of my pain
but only on Hermès dinner plates





Jameka Williams is from Chester, PA, southeast of metropolitan Philadelphia. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Prelude Magazine, Powder Keg Magazine, Muzzle Magazine, Yemassee Journal, Tupelo Quarterly and Painted Bride Quarterly. Muzzle Magazine nominated her poem, "Yeezus' Wife [when asked what do you actually do]," from their June 2017 issue for "Best of the Net 2017" and the Pushcart Prize. She is pursuing a MFA in creative writing at Northwestern University. She resides in Chicago, IL.