after Denise Duhamel’s “Antichrist Barbie”
She sits inside her Barbie Malibu Dreamhouse
like a socialite waiting on her assistant.
Her body yearns to be dressed
by little girls, but especially those little boys
who’ll give her glitz and glamour.
Mothers debate letting the dolls sit for 2 to 3 days
post play date or wiping them down with Lysol.
Barbie doesn’t have COVID, cry the little girls,
and the little boys, who in secret, love her.
The boys who’ll grow up to cinch their waists,
sissy their walk, balk at lace front wigs,
leave families behind to free their inner Barbie,
who’ll grow up to be men thankful
one blue pill a day will prevent at least one virus.
Dustin Brookshire, a finalist for the 2021 Scotti Merrill Award, is the curator of the Wild & Precious Life Series and editor of Limp Wrist. He is the author of two chapbooks—Love Most Of You Too (Harbor Editions, 2021) and To The One Who Raped Me (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2012). Visit Dustin online at www.dustinbrookshire.com.
panoply, a literary zine 