Background Noise
by Chloe Hooks
back where I’m from
women got tape dispenser tongues
clip their talk, dust whipping their faces
shut down sound with a lipstick snap
powerful enough
to pin drunk brother to the ceiling
or maybe
refasten a broken reputation
back where I’m from
the smartest girls yank out velvet muscle
unroll wet ribbon until
they secure a dream of wrapping paper
crisp creases, coiled bow
and
present it to their lovers saying
this is
my gift
to you
I’m from
that place of homestyle heat
where Missy learns rhetoric from a sticker-burr
where all the ladies’ cotton compliments are slick with oil money
and where Nana’s stash of lye unfilths errant mouths
back where
Mother’s loving strategies are hot chocolate and tequila
and cicadas thrum while Sissa skinny-dips between Cyprus toes
where
a rawhide scent beguiles and
a little girl can’t tell
daddy’s hunting belt
from
daddy’s dancing shoes