First Girlfriend

Denise Bickford Hopkins


Snow & listening. Or         almost snow & listening
to the hush of waiting.      But also listening to Annie Lennox
singing           sweet dreams are made of this        her open mouth
her        riding crop          the cow walking around the conference room.                   

In college once, brought home my girlfriend like a secret treasure
who, in primal hunger, opened the fridge to an
offering      —  severed cow’s tongue  in watery blood.

later, we kissed in the dark on the floor of my room, quiet as
though no one knew what the silence meant.
Below us, the piece of flesh still waiting for someone else’s mouth.









Denise Bickford Hopkins (they/theirs) is a queer poet originally from Midcoast Maine. Their work has appeared in Foglifter, Seneca Review, New Words Press, and The Los Angeles Review, among others. They are the author of one chapbook, Repka, from Dancing Girl Press. Denise is an alumni of the University of Maine and the Boise State University MFA in creative writing program. They currently live in Pullman, Washington.









Originally published in Moss: Volume Ten.


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