Coherency
by Hannah Treasure
I do not go to the gym, I run after buses.
The best thinking is done while chasing or riding a bus.
While the bus is in motion I learn to apply liquid eyeliner.
The driver places eyelashes on the bus’s headlights.
A suggestion about makeup is made at the pool party.
Boys should throw girls into the pool to see who they are.
Girls emerge from the water with inky cheeks and hunger.
We drip chlorine and devour the host’s corn dip.
I say everyone will eat this at my future wedding.
And I will wake up every morning without hiding.
In the bathroom everyone reapplies the Great Lash Stick.
My mom talks shit about my orthodontist’s lashes
after she adds blue rubber bands to my teeth.
I choose blue because it reminds me of the water.
Blue will make my teeth reveal who they are.
Hannah Treasure is a lecturer in the English Department at Clemson University. Previously she taught at Brooklyn College, where she earned her MFA in poetry in 2020. She has served as the poetry editor of The Shanghai Literary Review. Her work appears in Cordella Magazine, Sonora Review, No Dear, Claw & Blossom, and Volume Poetry, among others. Though Hannah has lived in several places, she spent her most formative years in Texas.
