Dear Prof. Rick,
I thought a lot about your “words of wisdom;”
happiness; life; inspiration; Christmas morning,
victims of the Home Goods sale section. But,
allow me to inquire, you seem awfully hopeful;
the subordination of your sweater vests
reminds me of my grandfather’s, well,
on Christmas morning. So, I must say,
I may have made a mistake; taken a
slight misstep, if you will. Nothing that
the morning-after pill could fix, on no.
No. No. Something far more abortionable.
You see, to put it simply, economics is imbecilic.
The imaginary world your life is indebted
is simply – how shall I say – sanguisugent.
I sat in your class last week, observing
your graphs and charts and mentally
deranged cartwheels. Cartoonish creatures
replacing consumer surplus. Trigonometry,
rocketry, theoretically, hypocrisy; just a few
notably interchangeable terms. Over and
over. ‘Round and ‘round. But, I must say,
your unworldly rotisserie, botched and bruised,
is presentable to no feast. So, professor, may I
apologize, for you’re my pen’s subsequent quarry,
very un-carefully carved into my notes. Before
you and your beloved sweater vest arrive supplied
to kill, please know, I did think a lot about what you
said; happiness; life; inspiration; and now I know
that sweater vests aren’t “one size fits all.”
Which is – how shall I say – unfortunate.
We don’t get flowers
We don’t get flowers
vacant of warning left
at the doorstep we
won’t read signed notes
only R u up? texts
conventional slurs we
can’t have palms
to trace together more
then one night a week we
aren’t for the Sun
just someone’s son
places absent of the moon
We don’t get flowers but
We carry our petals
with white knuckles we
We were never the one
meant to be peeled
Sarah Belli is a poet and artist from Sarasota, FL. She is currently an undergraduate student at the University of South Florida double-majoring in English, with a concentration in Creative Writing, and Economics. Her art has been published in 805 Lit + Art, and her poetry will be published in the upcoming issue of the Sucarnoochee Review. Her writing is influenced by anything from her upbringing and personal experiences to theoretical economic concepts. Sarah is currently working on a poetry collection called Experiences I Don’t Think are Mine and hopes to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing postgraduate.