Seventeen magazine – tell me; is he flirty or friendly? you must not condemn me; male decency is so alien. is it the chick-flicks? we’ve been pumped since kindergarten; if he pulls my hair – interested (rape culture is coded within our moms’ advice). is it the fan fiction consumption? or about the way we […]

After Caroline Bird Have you changed the way you write your soft letters, like m and c and s? Made them harsher, perhaps, to offer no hiding spaces? When you wake up, do you have to weed your eyelashes? At dinner do you see a thatch of hands writhing in the vomit of your lamb […]

WHAT IS YOUR NAME? My name was spat out of a laughing river. It is lips of salt, it is soaked in sunlight, it is without god. HOW OLD ARE YOU? I am old enough. You can count the tree-rings on my torso if you cut me in half. HOW IS YOUR HEART? I wish […]

Based on questions from the civics portion of the naturalization test for United States citizenship. What is the supreme law of the land? ask me where I’m from // go on / ask me // don’t / be afraid // I’m harmless What does the Constitution do? ask me where I’m really from // go […]

Is this something that humans can do? I guess you could drop your iPhone X but that wouldn’t give me more time with you. How do you freeze time? Is that something that we could achieve? You could always send a photo to the wrong person but maybe I’m just being naive. How do you […]

Why is there dissonance within music? Must a pianist’s chords clash and release, like tide shattering a hermit crab’s home? Why do trees fall? Are their roots too fine in holding their dignity of years? Or do our axes force gravity upon them? Must a story always end? Should pages be written in indelible ink […]

Should I seal my singing lips so as to not wake others’ demons? Should I lock my rattling voice box and let all my unexpressed opinions choke me? Should I remain a ventriloquist’s puppet and speak others’ words? Should I hold my breath and stay under water, lest the free air liberates me? Should I […]

do I remain      when I leave for good, huddled in the corner of your brain,            unwanted, chained, quick, quick             lock her up      get rid am I embraced             do you have a       synapse dedicated to my name          that sparks heady glutamate when I am mentioned             casually in conversation,           do you […]