Princess of Wales

My father used to tell me—
because she died almost
++++++++++++++exactly three months

before I was born—
+++++++++++part of her soul transferred to me.

Maybe it was destiny I inherit
it from her.

The unrelenting quest for perfection.

Methods—
++++++increasingly messy.
Her puddings. My candy wrappers
+++++++++++++++++++++stashed.
Delicacies,
++++++commodities
funnel down gullets.

Palace bathrooms, apartment lavatories.
A body folds over:
hand tunnels into mouth,

another nudges
++++++++++underneath rib cage.
My synthetic sapphire ring
caught between two cliffs—

suspended into
+++++++++never enough. In the mirror—

counting capillaries,
++++++++++++eyelids decorated
with blood vessel bursts.

A Sisyphean scoreboard.
The custom of it all.

Lily Gavazov is a poet from Chapel Hill, NC. Her work has appeared on Sad Girls Club Lit. She lives in Carrboro, NC. and is currently working on a manuscript. Find out more at lilygavazov.com.