Crystal Stone

MANIC PIXIE DRUNK GIRL

Her mood is a genie in a snowglobe.

Her look is a snow woman with a button

nose, jeweled lips, and 80’s hair.

Some days, all the hands shaking

the glass drop glitter in her strands.

Sometimes they shake the perfect messy bun.

In the purse hanging off her branching arms,

anything you might want: a flask, cigarettes,

aspirin, marshmallows, chocolate,

ready for any bonfire, ailment or thirst.

She can make you smile, boy, even hung

over. All of her tears are tears of joy.

Her nipples are warm coals in the February

snow. She can open the closed

sex shop to make sure you get the love

you want. She only defeats you in bed, where

she chokes the right part of your neck,

bites your ear lobes with pop rock sparks.

Her limbs are monkey bars and you’re

always welcome. Don’t shatter

the glass, darling. Let your eyes

accumulate the snow.

Crystal Stone is the author of two collections of poetry, Knock-Off Monarch (Dawn Valley 2018) and All the Places I Wish I Died (CLASH 2021). Her work has previously appeared in The Threepenny Review, The Hopkins Review, Salamander, Poetry Daily, Writers Resist and many others. She is an MFA candidate at Iowa State University, where she gave a TEDx talk on the transformative power of poetry. You can find her on Twitter @justlikeastone8, on Instagram @justlikeastone, or at her website www.crystalbstone.com