I Wear Lipstick for the Following Reasons by Wendy Allen

I am proud of wearing something superfluous,

I don’t need to reapply Ruby Woo, but I do,

habitually, after coffee, after crying, when I

fuck you, which I don’t, this is pure fantasy,

something I want to do. I meet you in a car

park of a National Trust Garden, hold your

face, tell you I love you, stand between

outstretched legs, reapply Ruby Woo. I want to

see the red of my lipstick smeared on your

face, for people to know just how much you

make me red inside.

---

Wendy Allen has been published in Poetry Wales and Ambit, and has poems forthcoming in Banshee, The Moth and The North. Her pamphlet, Plastic Tubed Little Bird, will be published in May 2023 by Broken Sleep.

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