Allyn Bernkopf

mother monster

kiss me sweet teach me how
to stand straight i pluck my brows
clean dissolve my face in gin

mother monster i drank lots last 
night & an hourglass found me
dug up other glass monsters

& now i drink every night watch
widows creep above my hair
line nest in my curls aside flies

i am beside myself mother 
monster deep under sheets
of acid & ecstasy this man found

his way to my bed & i’ve hidden
my child-self away from me 
i don’t recognize his hips or 

the way he dissolves on top of me
so I’ve suspended my hourglass
clean above me mother monster

Allyn Bernkopf is a Ph.D. student in English, and creative writing at Oklahoma State University, where she was the recipient of the Gladys Burris Creative Writing Fellowship and is an Associate Editor for The Cimarron Review. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Word West Revue, Rock & Sling, Bayou Magazine, After Happy Hour Review, Two Thirds North Magazine, The Greensboro Review, and others. She has been anthologized in Women's Voices Anthology (These Fragile Lilacs, 2017) and Lost: Reflections (Medusa's Laugh Press, 2017). She holds a Master of Arts in English from Weber State University.