Don’t you want to believe it — with just the pluck of an eyebrow or the clip of a rogue cuticle you too could be new again? Beauty is the self’s sneakiest assassin, slipping in through the unlocked door of desire, slashing tomorrow’s throat with its shiny switchblade.I make the hair appointment, get the fillers, … Continue reading She Of Theseus
The year Logic came out with his suicide hotline song,we had to report students singing I just wanna diein the hallways during passing period. As teachers,it’s our job to report outcries like this to the crisiscounselor, even though we know it’s a song.You’re finished if you don’t, says the principal.Your life ended in ninth grade; … Continue reading My Students Say Things That Kill Me
Pretty cool for a kid who watched too much Disney channel and threw so many peace signs at Polaroids my Nana had to give me a nickel to stop. Amoebas with attitude sashaying through a sea of autotuned pink, pinky promise pink, gum-poppin’ pink. Now muted tones like bone, ecru, beige. I’m afraid I’m plain … Continue reading The Pink Cheetah Print Coat
Stag beetle, antlers raised Corpse mounted in resin. Preservation,nature’s baby, a human oddity, a body on displayon the desk, half paperweight half treasure. Palmed under the guise of sanctification (isn’t it beautiful?) — here is your forensic proof, the crime so, so long ago now a shadow on the waterline, the vessel submerged. Stag beetle, … Continue reading Funeral
I’m trapped between a rug and a hard place. This shiny floor keeps reproducing. I’m clinging like barnacles to the sinking ship. It is always moving, but where is it going? The captain is a bat out of hell. Wizzing through dark caves. Are you always moving? Young folks watch Tik Tok. Then they break … Continue reading Real Humans
Couldn’t look the cashier in the eye as I placed Diet Coke and cheapconcealer on the counter while Heather hid another lipgloss in her hoodie. Later, our loot spread out on her living room floor, she said to me, Not wanting to get caught isn’t the same thing as being a good girl — my … Continue reading Goods
After Stephanie Kirby The dead baby stepped off the train,Found no one waiting, no one holding aSign printed with a name to be recognizedBut not remembered. Somewhere anIrregular machine beeped. The dead babySaw our broken smiles split as we triedNot to be alone with each other. You, me, And the dead baby. Overhead lights … Continue reading Together
You appear in a class photo of everyone you’ve ever known, garbled knot of your expression. Your guide is a chance operation. Your colors, red and gold. Your parents were pole-sitters, rag-pickers. They found you in a basket of gestures. You’ve been keeping a scrapbook of sticks and grubs, swatches from a sanitary landfill. Like … Continue reading Sooth Saying
I have a little utopia in the middle of an apocalypse I have friends & sesh & fictional escapism I have a palace of mold in a city of unaffordable living I have a sacred space upon land that’s slowly shrinking I have love when all around me I see hate I have unity as … Continue reading Little Utopia
Stems once used as armor, teach me how to harden with tenderness O evergreen perennial.I carry you home with two 40 oz cervezas& some real slim thick incensenamed Renewal. I need to cover the decaythat belongs to the body of yesteryear —the tissue fibers, sinew I tied upin lavender-scented contractor bags.I situated you in the … Continue reading Ode to Bamboo Stalks I Bought at the Liquor Store