Mary’s Curse

Blue ink smears across on all of my prized possessions

Colored pencils, the new couch, favorite shirts, good jeans

I'll spare you the details

This is a curse from my grandmother

Perfect cursive, blue ink

Gift of gab

Mary steals the heart of any stranger

Oh, the men would chase after her

Good lookin’ business owners with black hair

She’d let them spend their money, but she couldn’t care less

She’d always preferred a butch with a twisted heart

Her hair's been coral red since the eighties 

Matches her lipstick in the emerald case

We haven’t spoken in a few years

One mercury retrograde

A message was sent to me 

Meant for my aunt

She's been spinning lies ever since

On an errand, I saw her pens 

Freebleeding cobalt

I curled my lip

Like a knife’s reflection

I thought about the curse, then

Picture her,  pacing down the hallways with her rosary

Slanderous phone calls

A couple of Hail Marys