Susan Darlington

On Becoming Courtney Love Singing Pennyroyal Tea

(Pennyroyal tea was used as an abortifacient. It is also the title of a Nirvana track that
was covered by Hole, the band Courtney Love founded.)

I bleach my hair into tangles.
Comb the beauty counter
for the brightest shade of lipstick
and make my mouth wounded red.

I salvage scuffed Mary Jane’s.
Wear with carpet burn knees
above a baby pink slip
stained with bloodied roses.

I knock back shot glasses
until my mascaraed eyes run.
Become feral with blindness
as I stalk a stage of dolls’ heads.

Strum three chords in blue
on a battered electric guitar,
polish flaking from my nails
and bruises pouring from my tongue

as I sing my reverse ‘Pennyroyal Tea’
to create life inside of me
until my throat is ravaged,
the incantation’s bloom withered.