Cigarette Woman
Tessa Calogaras (Massey University, New Zealand)
Lady between my fingertips,
White skin and chestnut hair,
Sits deep within my mind.
She pulls up like roses cumbering dirt
From roots that hang their feet
And quiver.
She swings loose her
Melancholy legs,
Dangling free against the summer’s air.
I giggle as I kiss her,
And she turns the brightest shade of
Red.
I hold her hand until the shakes set in
And pry our hands apart.
She fills me with her radiance;
I couldn’t eat for days.
She opens her mouth wide,
Her white teeth
Decorating the night
Like stars perched in darkness.
She makes my insides shine,
And steals what’s little left of my
Breath.
She’s a hard hit off a filter tip,
Soaked to the bone.
Tessa Calogaras is a 23 year old poet, working as a studio manager at a Wellington creative digital agency called *Experience. She first got into poetry as a way of therapy and loved how the use of metaphors and similes made these feelings feel more like cryptic messages and could be up for interpretation. Her dream would be to one day have her own poetry books; however, for now the most exciting thing for her is when people find her work and are touched by it.