Excerpt: Bright Lights, Big Department Store

I fashion myself 

in this

lime green, strapless

it’s how I’m seen

drinking Crystal Light

at the pool

laughing

all my friends

I want to be her

perfect and 

strawberry-kiwi

removing color

from the lips

so I go to get

another one of myself

this time more

relaxed posture

an ease of achievability 

from the neck up

it’s quite simple

you see

just the addition of

I part 

in the middle

so easy since birth

what we’re made for

I will do this 

for the rest of my life

like it cause you like it

X

Imagine having 

your period 

in Afghanistan

like Sex

and the City 

2 

but not

more elaborate

resorts

funny 

comedy

something

we’ve all 

been 

thinking

on 

the floor

away

from

Excerpt: Bright Lights, Big Department Store

I am holding myself

through way of layers

immaculate square footage

as to expose this as

the money they’re making

sleeveless design I feel

good about

unless

the places they agitate

practice of apparel

I ready

the delight

fold by fold

where solid answer is given

in the dressing room

both parties

unminded exposure

& shared disappointment of

an ill fitting top

what interaction

defines the weeks leading

how we

cannot keep a thing

to oneself

an empty Synergy bottle

incessant bleating

At Ocean Nails

I sink into polymer powder

my escape package

one girl to show another

her calf massaged

did she know

what a smell they’ve made

a sealant for my 

expressed relaxation

I’ve refused

a 10 minute pressure

in the back of my neck

not doing what I want to do

today I am 

here at Ocean Nails

as something deserved

thinking

my life could be worse

like your lyme disease

the negative tests 

a page refreshed obsessively 

we slept easy

tanning with all our clothes on

weekday vacation

like if there was a way

for us 

to be this sunroof

furling back into itself

every yard, hydrangeas 

there is a better word for it

a feeling once felt 

watching lightening from the sand

I expected it

he picks me up 

the rain comes

I cry in the car

about hating my job

we can’t see out the windshield

an avoided fender-bender

new nails dry under UV bulbs

a shelf holds an offering of fruit

it’s bananas 

Excerpt from Just Us Girls

she continues getting replaced

or replacing me 

it is the same, a stunning fit  

A-line, wide belt she divided

me from myself

what dangerous likeness 

this necessary lining

that I am after