An Ode to My Neck by Moxxy Rogers

this Neck is my pedestal

it holds the crown of all my thoughts

ideas that never get written down

but when they do

it starts

rst from

My Neck

the bridge of my breath,

the alley between the

bump bump

thump thump

in my chest and the

quiver of lips parted on wine glasses

this Neck bends and rolls,

creaks and cracks

and when cradled in the wrong direction

like a rubber band released too fast, it

snaps

this Neck has been kissed

licked

bitten

and moaned into,

worshipped and whispered against

this Neck loves goosebumps, the kind

that travel with a passport

this Neck loves sass, watch how it swivels when i'm upset

this neck desires a pillow at the end of a long

day

this Neck, My Neck,

was never meant to feel a knee

not created for pressure i didn’t ask for,

this neck, My Neck,

despises blue authority, detests a knee attached to a badge, cannot

stand to be destroyed or

knocked off its pedestal

get off My Neck, get off My Neck, get off My Fucking Neck

didn’t anyone ever tell you

a noose is not as pretty as pearls

and this Neck deserves to be adorned in

diamonds cut from cop teeth

& if you touch what isn’t yours

i’ll take your teeth too

This Neck is mine.

Moxxy Rogers is a Pacific Northwest based Spoken Word Artist, Poet and Media Producer whose work has been featured in Pathos Literary Magazine, The Saving Daylight Zine, Pile Press, Carolina Muse, NAILED Magazine and other local publications. She graduated from Portland State University with her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Creative Writing with a Focus on Poetry and a Minor in Film Studies.

Moxxy has also worked with the Portland Playhouse to perform her original poetry in their productions of Joy Comes In the Mourning and The Sounds of Afrolitical Movement, and has been selected as a featured poet two years in a row for the Oregon Writers of Color Spring Showcase hosted by Ooligan Press and Literary Arts.

She is currently earning her MA in Poetry and MFA in Playwriting at Wilkes University.

Her poems and short films can be found on her Instagram @moxxymay.poetry.