everything tastes like candy

In the dressiest of minefields
in the conundrum of footwear.
In the looped youth obsession with block
letters on bracelets in the hermit’s
heart. In the foreground of a Cadillac
in the background of a pomegranate.
Wrap me in foil, put me in the Airfryer,
wheel me out of the dereliction, the hospital,
the fishtank. I like to be carried
from my womb to your brain. All I want
is a handful of cash and gum to chew
like a cow in the mud.
Read your phone. Go to heaven.
In the harpsichords of yesteryear
in the fridge humming, in the bazaar
in the bazaar I saw you running
toward a fur coat and thought
the world a superb lie. Now
it is my turn to pull apart a stranger
with my teeth. Psych—no such thing
as stranger. They said you taste like
Candy. Everything tastes like candy.

—

from Local Virgin of Impression–published by Dead Mall Press

Buy the book here

—

Ellen Boyette is a poet and essayist whose work is interested in the occult, the internet, and objects real or imagined. She received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, Best of the Net nominee, and an Academy of American Poets College Prize recipient. Her first full length book, LOCAL VIRGIN OF IMPRESSION, was published in the fall of 2025 with Dead Mall Press. She is the author of two chapbooks and has work featured in The Columbia Review, The Iowa Review, jubilat, The Bennington Review, Prelude, and elsewhere.