Explore UAB

Maggie Dietz

BPR 50 | 2023

Because the face you saw was not the one
     You wanted you made with a bright steel brad

Two cockeyed holes in the skin between
     Your brows and bled all over the barbell

You tried to ram through them half
     Laughing in the TikTok I saw later at the way

The silver stud ends skewed diagonal.
     You told me that the marks were acne scars

But fessed up the day you used a safety pin
     To stab the weblike membrane connecting upper gum

To lip and asked if you could keep it as if
     The mutilation were a kitten or a frog.

What was I supposed to say? That I like you
     The way you came?

I did what any brokedown woman would and drove
     You to a place called Pierced Utopia at

The Saugus mall where a human with a spangled face
     Plunged a needle through your perfect nose.

Facebook.