About the Poems
by Melissa Barrett
These poems come from a larger collection that aims to explore women and love, women and lust, women and monogamy, abstinence, and patriarchy. The exploration started at home, with words, images, and often whole poems crafted from my own relationships.
Because I don’t remember my first kiss, I asked sixteen women to share their stories with me. From these stories, I siphoned words and phrases, in the style of the erasure, to collectively form what I now consider the story of my own "First Kiss." The sequence was inspired by the brilliant Sophie Calle; the sixteen women showcased in the poem were my project midwives.