In my dream, you were naked–
I think.
–Your breasts and lips were drenched
in the scent of me and
I was
all over you.
At first it made you feel yellow
and new-
like a champagne flower
bubbling in the sunshine
— and then you were angry at me
for reflecting all the mean holes
in your prettyheart
“Prettyheart” by Angie Hoover-Hillhouse
Artwork: Flora & Fauna by Jenn Mann
The Show Tell Project 
So, I know blog comments aren’t exactly a great forum for critique, but I can’t resist. Feel free to delete this.
The opener to this poem is so strong and captivating, The body or verse continues on with this incredible sensual, corporeal imagery. I’m a very picky reader, ten fold so for poetry, and hundred fold so for poetry on blogs, and you really had me hooked.
Then in the last line we get that ‘prettyheart’ that just feels ostentatious. There are, after all, plenty of words in the English language. Is combining the two necessary? Do they mean more combined than separate? It comes off as an attempt to appear more poetic, something superfluous when your poem is already plenty poignant by itself.
By all means though, great work.
Thank you for such a thoughtful response. I used ‘prettyheart’ because it is a term of endearment like ‘sweetheart.’ So “holes in your prettyheart” conjures the image of a human heart riddled with holes… but it also points to the degradation of the speaker’s romantic perception of her friend.