analgesic for apostates

nosediving from the ketamine and
distracting myself from the open
wound on my back, crimson-soaked

mesh shorts and criminally cotton
mouth, the nurse flashes flawless

Sonnet

     Водопровод – человеческая мысль, связь вещей, победившая хаос, священная организация, централизация. Л. Гинзбург

Everybody finds it easy to wake up in the
morning
I seem to want to

a new matchbook

"Casual Tease" and "Aria"

Life is viciously short.

i wanna drift like they do...

a new villanelle

i always loved to keep a summerboy around...

"Hot Girl Manifesto" and "Blockbuster"

Steady State Phenomenon in Muharraq Before

This is the invention of a spectacle. The verge of fungible wealth, dirigibles
of electricity. A thunder of dust and rickshaw sermons in Muharraq

Playin’_The_Keys

i love to dance, sing, write, chill, read
and play the keys, but sometimes, life
doesn’t allow me to hang out
and do my thing, which means
i have to divide my time into many

The Census Taker Asks Me to Tell Her About Myself

Well Terri, I’m afraid
of catfish—not their tunneling mouths,
but the paradoxical combination
of predator and prey in cat/fish—

I’m afraid of

Useful tips for a woman

1.
When the drawstring comes off from the petticoat, you need to look at it as an opportunity to learn patience.

Pin a safety pin to the end of the drawstring and push

Snake Day

God is strange. He killed my father,
     and He is everywhere, all of the time.

He is spread across the twinkling shingles and the clean, white siding
     of this windowless

I’m a mineralogist now,

I tell Jake, as I show him my crystals
all neatly displayed in boxes. It makes

me feel like a scientist. But I use
the crystals to cure the bad things in my

life, to

I’m Writing from the Other Side of the Universe to Ask You How the Weather Is

This is a soft rain, my father says, his forehead a creased encyclopedia page. It is mao mao yu in Chinese, syllables

Song for 2 Phones

     What is that?
The line outside
the Maria Bamford standup
we went to last year.
          Send it to me.
     What is that?
A sugar maple on the hill
shedding Gatorade

Traffic

It’s 60 degrees in January so the birds have decided to just stick it out because who can afford the time-share anyway and the flowers bloom completely off-key like the conductor is drunk

...I'm part of this thing where fish learned to walk...

"lucky" and "trophy"

become translucent as they die...

"Silverado Crush" and "This Is How You Throw a Party in Mykonos, Bitch"

"Smile!," "The Finest," and "The Young"

"The First Time I Called Myself His Girl" and "You Google Drive-Thru Margaritas"

"commandment" and "do i miss you? that's none of my business"