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 

SHITLUCK Reading

Thanks Fran, thanks Gabe, thanks whoever took this photo. 

Summer of Love/First Reading

Francesca and I reading from our chapbook Summer of Love (YOMO, 2013) with Emily Toder at Zinc Bar last night. Thanks to everyone who came out and to Drew Boston! 

from Summer of Love

4.

At that grad party I’m passed out on lawn chair

and John Vanca flings me over his shoulder like

“She’s going home with ME” and I giggle “Yeah”

‘cause I still owe him for throwing up on his 

Bronco John Vanca and his pony tail

you promise to keep

me and my beergarita safe pull on my legs

away from him to the couch very “Shhhhhh 

we don’t even have to kiss I vacuumed your 

vomit out of this kid’s astro turf don’t worry” 

even though you 

driving my car

don’t buy me breakfast 

If you'd like a copy for $3, send me an email XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Excerpt from Just Us Girls

I am in a tight corner

where harm 

is duly meant

and to be harmed

with the skill

required to fill in

an eyebrow

is commendable

just keep under

standing this and

you will be

made

the you you

carry inside

yourself

an admittance

which throws

into disarray 

the pruned

napes of the

female network

in its heightened

overlapping

I know nothing

of those girls

what is made 

safe in the mouth

exchanges

color

the lips to

create new territory

we are so 

because one 

says, a 

generative bonding

better 

when retained 

✶

you brought out

my muted 

activity for

performance purposes

a way to keep me 

in participation 

eight hands 

clapping, appear

to feel the air

between speakers

ultimately 

there is a lacquer

something in terms

of hierarchy

        I put her in my clothes they called my mom my mom

        called me ready to rip my hair out. The girl with my ID 

        in reception never thought it was possible mom, didn’t 

        think she would actually go through with it, but tell me 

        again now who am I? This yellow top? 

a wider cut 

with formal

implications 

announces itself

loudly I 

did not test 

the fair inverse

the recalcitrant 

female privacy 

you are

in the state of

things at quite

a safe position 

in its beginning

there is confusion 

of ability

what gathers

steam 

lacking the other

side’s correspondence

only what is offered

what received, you

speculate on 

motivations

by the sound

a female’s voice

it adds up 

to something

this sequence

multiple surprises

within claims

of civility

I find it

deliberate 

✶

our dual

surveillance 

purporting

what slit

in view what

I have to be

is someone

talking 

a glean 

maintained 

without such 

compliance 

there is a certain

choking

something stuck

in the back 

of the throat 

trimmings ascribe 

persistence 

always the girls

delight afforded

to us through

their conversations 

it is about

making everywhere

outside

the development

of a smokey 

top lid