Chili Cheese Fritos

Tone and tension

Blurred images and tears escaping

Footsteps getting closer to me

Warped floors and unsteadiness

Flexing and cracking

 

Blurred vision.

I close my eyes

 

He inches closer to me

And all I can distinguish

Is the wafting smell

Of Chili Cheese Fritos.

 

The comparable taste

Of Chili Cheese Fritos

And the taste of blood

All so similar.

 

My first black eye.

My second broken rib.

My third time being punished.

My fifth cry for help.

 

All the memories flood back

And dump into a pit based off the smell

Of Chili Cheese Fritos.

 

Not being able to smell

But still smelling those Fritos through a shattered nose.

They were a warning shot.

They were a reminder.

They were my morning ritual.

 

Unclean hands

Up and down my face

Across my chest and down my back

Thickly coated chili

Blending into my skin

Like the foundation I used to cover my scars.

 

I wore the powder like war paint.

The fakeness of Fritos

All the expectations

All the lies and all the whispers

 

Being held up like a trophy

Like I wasn’t a punching bag.

 

Sitting high and proud

Like he didn’t break me.

 

The disgusting grin he had

When he told another joke.

He expected me to laugh

 

Power

Pain

Plotting

 

A red deeper than the hate I had for him

His thickly coated pearly whites

Helped me make up my mind.

 

Chili Fritos did not own me.

 

And I took my life back.

 

This poem is about: 
Me
Poetry Terms Demonstrated: 

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