The Morning After Sexual Assault/Chapel

There is a boy in the library eating
blue and purple erasers today
his smirk is an open wound

When he sits, an onyx rosary
swings from his belt
you can’t label this pain              not yet
not in the presence of Jesus’ thorned crown 

That is what your mother would say
that Jesus had it worse                 that he died
for the boy across the room who
holds your voice with his fist

              (calls you "sister" which appears more distant than cousin somehow)

And he brands you bittersweet
as if your body is a Hershey’s bar
                             split diagonally

You will kill him              in your thoughts
then put him back together again

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Ahja Fox is an avid reader, dancer, and researcher of all things morbid and supernatural. Her other passion is acting as co-host/ co-partner of Art of Storytelling (a reading series in Denver, Colorado). You can find her work published or forthcoming in Driftwood Press, Rigorous, Noctua Review, The Perch, and more. Stay up-to-date on her reading/performance schedule and publications by following her on Instagram and Twitter at aefoxx.