All the Things I Tried to Wear

The first thing I put on was my braA silky balm against my raw heartLetters sprinkled on by abracadabraA B C D E F- -college-level artThe restless As sparkling-singingFlinging all the other ‘phabets into shadowsMy chest beat like eagle’s wingsRising, Falling, sure in its credoNext, I reached for my T-shirtAnd shuffled it over flickering fleshI felt firmer-with the scrawls on my backThe seal of membership in “cool club”And then I added on panties and pants, stampedWith collages of motion, emotion “n” lotionFrom that time on the freezing bus, smiling-That day on the beach, crying-that nightWhen I got the news, laughing-in math classI still had friends- Now it’s all undone, my laces-My mascara has run, my lashesHave flapped-fluttered onto the floorMy panties and pants have slid offMemories-crumbled and crushed-I am left with the vapors of philia,My T-shirt torn-my clubmates goneAnd you keep on tugging-tearingI want all-I can give you someI want all-My bra loose-the As limpI want all-I want blood and flesh-Nothing more.—Iyeyinka Omigbodun ’16 is a Social Anthropology concentrator in Eliot House.