By Misti Lake
Date: 6 February 2001

All the Girls You've Loved Before

poor Alex and Kim and Dennis and Meg
I read about celebrity splits and try to forget
my myriad insecurities and the blame game we mire
ourselves in so witlessly
you drop names
wax nostalgic
and I tell you that I'll never love animals or be the
original muse
they're New Yorkers
savvy and strong and oh so self-reliant
I'm an illiterate country girl
how backward and sexist of me to shave my pits
and spend ten minutes on my face
and forget about phlegmatic
so quickly I snap
and crack the whip
your Complicated Goddess
is a real live breathing girl, alas
pretty damn far removed
from Mount Olympus.

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