Eve as 16-Year-Old Girl Who Eats an Earthworm on a Dare

He says I’ll wimp out.

I say part the earth

flexing the muscle

of my tongue to startling

effect. I am most tempted

when told I can’t or I won’t.

In gym class, I hurt him

when we’re the only ones

left running the PACER

test. I go & go faster until

we both collapse. I can’t help

proving him wrong. He says

vagina when he means

vulva. It’s in the root

of words, I recognize

I am made for spectacle.

Candy wrapper. Sword

swallower. I show him

the dictionary & discover

the definition for penis

is longer than my parts

combined. As if he means

more than me. I want to shake

his belief, take him in my hand

& demonstrate how his body

is built to deplete. He’s the wilted.

I wasn’t made so weak. Since I can

remember, I’ve been drawn

to morphology. I open

my mouth while I eat

to teach him what happens

inside of me. I halve

a worm between my teeth

and let both ends writhe.

Just like that, I multiply.