Poetry by Lilly Perry

             ​Peter Corbett CC



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“Look, horses” and the Myth of Codependency 

Okay if I don’t need 
you, specifically
I still need a friend. And a lover
and a sky so big it makes me a little sick
to think about.
I still need a reminder about my mittens
or I’ll forget my mittens and
I still need someone in the passenger seat
to say “Look, horses” when we pass horses
or I might miss them.
If I miss the horses I don't know what could happen.
When you left me, my need didn’t go with you.

Sometimes feminist discourse asks us to brag about being alone.
I would rather brag about the time I was so sad
my entire community had to take me on as a group project,
even the kids, who put my bones
back together like Legos. 
When you left me, my need spread out in every direction
it bled like ink and
I let them
fold me in half, then everyone took turns saying what they saw in me.

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Lilly Perry is a New York-based poet and sexual health educator. She has competed as a spoken-word performer on stages across the globe, and she is the creator of Water and Other Bodies (2019), a spoken-word album. Lilly published her first chapbook, Anti-Body: The Little Book of Longing in 2020.

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