CAT DIXON - POEMS

Cat Dixon is the author of EVA and TOO HEAVY TO CARRY (Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2016, 2014) and her chapbook, THE BOOK OF LEVINSON, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2017. She teaches creative writing at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. She has poems (co-written with Trent Walters) in They Said: A Multi-Genre Anthology of Contemporary Collaborative Writing (Black Lawrence Press, 2018).    

 THE SCENT OF A MAN

​One smells like old books, 
another like aloe vera 
with a touch of burnt flesh, 
one like woody cologne, one like cigarettes, 
but his scent is sweet like melon, 
and he tastes like salt, milk, 
sourdough. When his skin sizzles 
in the pan, the sweat popping 
like grease, you sprinkle pepper allowing 
the shots of spit to bite your exposed wrist.
Darling, melt and devour all of him—a meal 
worth the indigestion, the fight, the price. 

​THE HUNGER OF A MAN

​One should not eat the apple core,
the banana peel, the pit of a cherry
for these are meant for the trash,
but once you met a man who ate the whole
apple; as if he were the disposal
to carry away all discarded things,
to find fodder in everything. 

​OASIS

​ 
This morning you remembered him:
dark gray buttoned-down
shirt, black pants and eyes--
black like buttons. You thought
him angry, but then he touched
your thigh. In a classroom--
the teacher eyeing you two
from the front of the room--
under the desk, your hand
reached for his crotch,
then you kissed. The taste
of apricots and peaches
filled your mouth; his tongue,
a giant seed. You were
reprimanded and sent to the hall.
Alone, he brushed your hand
away. Under the pillow,
you find no fruit; across
from the bed, no dusty
chalkboard, only the large
mirror reflecting the wall.