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An Interview #1

Vibe Magazine: Why haven’t you shot yourself in the head?

Aaliyah: My mother sits in her padded recliner, stares through a row of Law & Order DVDs and thinks, "I should have told him I loved him more." My stepfather turns the wood grain wheel past his gut to send his pearl-white Yukon through the McDonald's drive-through thinking, "I should've had children of my own."


Met Gene Morgan

inside a 4-5 word
poem re the highway
outside El Paso

how lonely it is


Friends List

Creates a photo album for every country in Europe.
Posts pictures of the father who died last week.
Works part-time for Joan Didion.
Takes lithium and spies on her boyfriend. 
Goes to an expensive school.
Hates the Ridley Scott film Prometheus.
Leaves her phone charger different places.
Eats at The Waffle House near the airport. 
Talks of when she lived in Thailand.
Works at an Arby’s in Bastrop, Texas.
Teaches yoga in a mini-mall.
Plays Persian music and smokes hash.
Goes kayaking and wears Teva-brand footwear.
Has a tattoo that reads HELL along her neck.


Yellow Casket

you read a comment on the internet
       think “god, what an asshole”
       click reply and type your reply
       edit your reply and click the post button
    
you read “username and “password”
       think “god, what an asshole”
       type your username and password
       click login and read “this password is invalid”

you think "god, what an asshole"
       imagine a naked man at a computer
       click “forgot your password”
       type your email address

you think "god, what an asshole"
       imagine the man typing naked
       open your email
       see an email from your mom

you read “life insurance” in the subject
       picture yourself holding a bag of money
       imagine staring at a yellow casket
       feel afraid you don’t have feelings

you refresh your email
       open an email with subject “lost password?”
       think “you’d stare at the yellow casket and feel nothing”
       google image “yellow casket”

you look at jpegs of yellow caskets
       think how calm people look at death
       re-read the comment on the internet
       mutter “of course i would feel something”
      

 

image: Andromeda Veach


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