My Black Leather Mini-Skirts by Alicia Mathias

I’ve been bad and they know it.
They want to forgive me, yet it’s not easy.
I put them in a plastic garbage bag
left slouching in the corner
near the front door. Bulging
through the sides, misshapen—
They call out in muffled voices:
Why must we suffer, bored at home?
I see their point.
So close to each other 
but getting no action.

I’ve gotta let them go
out and stir the town.
Conjure up some hell.

So I pull them out
one by one—
feel them up; 
pressed to my past.

All the times we ran away—then came
home after partying.
Stilettos kicked off 
in front of the TV. Falling
asleep together on the couch;
smudged
in mascara—
runs in our stockings.

Lipstick smeared 
with kisses
from men 
we barely 
knew.

Alicia Mathias is a writer, artist, and photographer. Her poems and/or artwork, can be seen in: Ann Arbor Review, The Bitter Oleander, bradlaughsfinger, The Canopy Review, Chiron Review, Clockwise Cat, Fearless, January Review Journal, SetU Magazine, Newington Blue Press, Porter Gulch Review, The Rye Whiskey Review, Sore Dove Press, Unlikely Stories Mark V,  and elsewhere. She lives in New York, with her favorite muse, Zeppelin the Wonder Cat.