Untitled by: Macy Partain, Acrylic on canvas, 2015.
Obsessive Talk
by: Marissa Aguilar
The room with the clock that hung between two windows
kept track of the seconds until Sammy got paid.
I glared at the yellow couch against the wall,
its baby puke appearance fixed as a memory,
A terrible contrast to my blue jeans.
Others have touched this piece before,
flopped over tattered cushions,
their secrets hidden within its cracks,
along with forgotten pennies.
The mustard sofa,
neglected and soiled,
had it once been clean like me?
Before the pulled hair,
tossed kitchen scissors on bathroom tile floor,
a rush of “you’ll feel better once it’s done.”
Mother bent, pounding a hand against her thigh,
“it’s all in your head!” echoes off apartment walls.
“Friends” point and sneer at new close cut,
because pretty girls have long hair.
“How do you feel?” Sammy asked.
Sudden reminder of these past two years,
Fingertips tapping the spot exposed to air.
A sign labeled “patients” above,
I no longer had a name.