The Dogs I Have Kissed

Description

Winner of the 2015 Goodreads Choice Award for Poetry. “Gripping and powerful and disturbingly honest.” —Yena Sharma Purmasir POEMS ABOUT KISSING THE WRONG PEOPLE—AND SOMETIMES BEING THE WRONG PERSON. The Dogs I Have Kissed is for anyone who has wanted someone already halfway out the door. For anyone who has stayed too long, left before they could be left, confused being wanted with being loved, or waited for someone who was never going to ask them to stay. These are poems about bad dates and unhealed wounds. About biting back and rolling over. Wanting to be touched and being terrified of what happens afterward. Making monsters out of the people who hurt you—and then realizing you might have made one out of yourself, too. “Is this okay, is this okay, is this okay or does it make me weak?” the poet asks. First published at the height of the Tumblr poetry era and named after a lyric from Soltero's “I'll Be a Writer,” The Dogs I Have Kissed is confessional poetry about desire, intimacy, heartbreak, and the particular humiliation of loving people who cannot give you what you need.