13, or, How OkCupid Told My Mother I Had the Devil Living Inside of Me The first said, you must be a man as much as you want it then offered a gla** of water which is to say, have I not baptized you enough? The second will know nothing of your face but of how low your head can bow how open your mouth can crucify The third is Lazarus speaks only of what he can see there is no God in that The fourth an accent eyes the shade of Eden need I remind you how that chapter ends? The fifth a blonde-haired whiskey hands like goliath will toss you because he does not believe in your Christ, but you are still pretty for a black girl The sixth a dancer will know he is the age of Jesus At the cross But will still Make a resurrection Out of you The seventh Will kiss you Only after He's allowed his Righteous Work to rest On your face And your chest The eighth Is the driest valley Of lonely Your bones has ever Laid with The ninth A Lower-east side Bar shot The reason You do not call home What has no welcome mat The tenth Will ask if you are clean The eleventh Will try to unlearn your scripture Leg by leg Lip by lip The twelfth Is a rooftop In Brooklyn Is a bypa**ing thunderstorm In Brooklyn Is a hand-job in Brooklyn The thirteenth Is a rusty fence boy Is a trap door Is the one who will tell you, You do not love yourself 13 is the number of men you've allowed to wound your human with their horns It is fornication disguised as forgiveness which means you swallowed 13 men in two months when you mistook night for lonely but it is all blasphemy it is all reason to forget your mother gave birth to you under sun and sin so your throat is just a can*l just an ark your skin so night so animal it is a lust fist it is the daughter of Delilah you are and have always been 13 is one more disciple you've allowed to holy bible spread you none of them black they will want to read you and convince their bodies it walks on water but it is all blasphemy It is one more who has ransacked your gospel before reading it Making you another this is the first time I've slept with a black girl miracle.