In the dark theater, I stale with the popcorn leftbetween the seats. My boyfriend’s getting handsy.Behind, a few rows up, a man observes the theftof my growls as they slip from my swollen lips, bereftof control or no. My boyfriend knows I can’t seein the dark theater. I stale with the popcorn leftbetween his teeth, his buttered and salted breathpanting a mist on my neck. He won’t unhand me.Behind, a few rows up, a man observes. The thefthappens, unnoticed by only a few. It’s sweptunder the rug. On screen, the Joker’s dancing.In the dark theater, I stale. With the popcorn lefton the ground, my boyfriend grinds his palm on the cleftbetween my thighs. The Joker hollers like a banshee.Behind, a few rows up, a man observes the theftof my scream. The Joker paints a happy face, deftwith his finger movements. My boyfriend smiles at mein the dark theater. I stale with the popcorn leftbehind. A few rows up, a man observes the theft.
When I Say No, the Joker Smiles
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“When I Say No, the Joker Smiles” from RESTING BITCH FACE: by Taylor Byas.
Published by Soft Skull Press on August 26, 2025.
Copyright © 2025 by Taylor Byas.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
An Audacious Book Club Pick
The author of the award-winning national bestseller I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times returns with a poetry collection that transforms the Black female speaker from object, artistic muse, and victim to subject, critic, and master of her story
Resting Bitch Face is a book for women, for Black women, for lovers of art and film criticism, and for writers interested in work that finds a middle ground between poetry and prose. Taylor Byas uses some of our most common ways of “watching” throughout history (painting, films, sculpture, and photographs) to explore how these mediums shape Black female subjectivity.
From the examination of artwork by Picasso, Gauguin, Sally Mann, and Nan Goldin, Byas displays her mastery of the poetic form by engaging in intimate and inventive writing. Fluctuating between watcher and watched, the speaker of these poems uses mirrors and reflections to flip the script and talk back to histories of art, text, photography, relationships, and men. From Polaroids to gesso primer to sculpture, Byas creates a world in which the artist calls out and the muse responds. For not only does she enter the world of the long-revered classic artist, but she also infuses her poems with such iconic pop culture works as The Joker, WandaVision, and Last Tango in Paris.
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