First Response

by India Nicholas

My girlfriend has a copper hook inside her.
It is a tiny, T-shaped thing. Perfect to hold a writhing worm,
an inch of flesh pieced by metal. This thing would bob in Lake Oswego,
shining, glittering, ready to be nibbled by fish that sparkle with rainbow skin.

But my girlfriend does not use her copper hook to catch me
or any other scaled swimmer. Her small tool sits afloat in her belly, sends repellent,
a radar of warning. Her copper hook is a fence around the lake.
My bloated fish are not allowed to swim there.

I wonder if it rusts, her copper hook jewelry.
Will it turn that aquamarine green? I wonder, does it pollute?
Will it stain her insides? Will that color seep through her skin?
I would like to have a blue girlfriend.

India Nicholas is a writer from Portland, Oregon who currently lives in Brooklyn. Her favorite rapper is Lil Wayne and her favorite poet is Sherman Alexie. She tumbls here and tweets here.