STOP KICKING

Mary Cassatt, Little Girl in a Blue Armchair, 1878, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art

stop kicking         the back of my chair        aditya chanrai

         it’s not my fault          they call you          chunky         

 booger goblin          fat spice         not your fault         

         they call me           dick fetus          lord queerington III          

“the smell”         you don’t        need        to kick my chair

         aditya          I’m kicking it myself          galloping        

toward revenge         in the form of a poem        I’ll write

         years from now         a poem that reveals       

the embarrassing birthmark          on your ass

        (I told everyone)         & you couldn’t kick        

a ball for shit          just like me         & just like you      

         I kicked         adam dangoor’s chair        & adam      

kicked will morland’s chair         & will kicked curran 

         vedi’s chair     & curran kicked your chair     & you 

kicked your own chair        out        beneath         your legs       

         dangled         like a big spider         kicking        I heard           

in class                raspberry walls                stop it aditya

         it isn’t funny               I’m not turning around

Oliver Sedano-Jones' work has appeared in Banshee, Tears in the Fence, Ink Sweat and Tears, SPOONFEED, Porridge, and Prototype. He was shortlisted for the Wales Poetry Award 2020, and won the Write Bloody UK manuscript contest in 2021.