A POEM by SARAH J. WHITE

YEAST INFECTION

I got the Monistat pretty high up,
If I do say so myself.
I like to extinguish the burn
From the inside,
Like a bomb;
Like milk to the gut
After hot wings.

Something’s been living in me
Since you possessed me
In a puff of smoke
By a riverwalk.
The thing is molding, adhering
to my cervical walls,
Creeping through my insides.

If I could scrape the cells myself,
I would. But the residue
Is too high, too haunting,
Forming to my interior
Like a cast;
Like a vague, mucosal map—
Known just enough for you
To spread.

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Sarah J. White (she/her) is a writer and video producer based in Los Angeles. Her satirical writing has appeared on Reductress, The Belladonna, Slackjaw, and other platforms, while her screenplays have placed in competitions including the Austin Film Festival, PAGE, and Scriptation Showcase. In 2022, she attended the Nostos Screenwriting Retreat in Arezzo, Italy, to develop her feature screenplay. She holds a BA in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University.