3 by kristin gilchrist
Say it in Spanish
|
I love a good shitpile.
Flowcharts and sinking houses, lunch with Phyllis — all covered in cat hair. I love decisions between nuts and M&M's, between buying a new car or just sending a letter. When a gallon of lemonade costs four dollars, you don't need to stop loving yourself. It's always a choice, the space you make, the noise in between. After all, it's only a trip to Wawa, which means the same thing when you say it in Spanish, and you can hate yourself on the way there for what you are not doing or just put your shoulders down and take it — one lovely breath at a time. |
Friday Night, and the Pichinko Parlor is Packed
|
We are two people, one steak one salmon; one under construction, one holding the microphone, and we are mostly liquid crystal, barn cold-- exchanging one futon cover for another. For each of us, it’s six days of sneezing. before we see a doctor. Kristin, they’ll say, there is somebody else in the penthouse eating up your mint chocolate chip ice cream. First Lady Harding, no longer hiding behind her powder puff, casts a vote for spending the day at Ikea, one for Swedish Meatballs, one for Glamoros. DJ Colorful Hearts could be behind enough mirrors to cover us in fire. One, a pair of tight jeans in a galvanized tub one, with her back turned walking down the street. In the City of White Lovers, one could look all day for paper towels, and one could find enough chocolate to ship overseas. But first, wipe your left eye, count your lighters. We are in two places, one a retirement community, one a poker tournament in Mesquaki, and we are mostly thinking about mowing a giant peace sign in the grass and painting our planks, something colorful, something to match our smiles. |
Agreeable
|
I agree that it's a great day to eat some of my daughter's Halloween candy. The candy agrees. My daughter agrees that she doesn't like peanut butter anyway. Today, it is also agreeable to be five minutes late to everything, and not really agreeable to be on time except for fondue. It was agreeable to destroy Pruitt-Igoe. It is agreeable to destroy the hollow sound of the highway. To take destruction and agree. |
KRISTIN GILCHRIST'S poems have most recently appeared in H_ngM_n, Prism Review, and ILK. She loves dancing and the internet and can often be found there (dancing and not dancing) and not at the party in her daughter's room tomorrow to which she was not invited. Don't worry, you weren't invited either, but this is the equation: glitterMOB = friendlier than an 8-year-old.
|