Come December
when it
happened it
wasn’t as bad as it
shh/could’ve been much worse than it
was but we don’t talk/about it
six years of shame scattered
across the hellscape of a body gone
sour—sweat and sinew and STOP
it
spores of memory proliferate
under your gritty fingernails
i shaved myself
down past the skin
and you still found a way to demolish it
but
what’s between
i + t ?
six years of strength
growing surreptitiously
beneath the calloused skin until
at last I become
Triumphant
Swipe Culture
It’s Friday night and I’m cruising
the grocery store I’m pretty
sure I’ve seen your face somewhere
too close to the cherries
are in season right?
Did I make you mad
when I left
you on read in pursuit
of pixelated pleasure?
Swap-swipe drip wipe my lips
so sick from every angle
of your composite profile
Did anybody hear me when
I said I should’ve left
to my own devices I’ll blow
off any semblance of what’s right
secure and easy in my victimhood I recognize
myself vivisected on your screen and
I’ll throw up
a towel over that whoring mirror until I’m ready
to see if anything worth
saving is left
Retail
It’s a beautiful Laborbarmemorial Day here
in Texlahoma.
Laura Lynne square dances with George Jenkins
beside the retention pond while
I powder my nose
with anonymity and take my place behind
the bulletproof plexiglass. Long
hours stretch into a throng of the living
dead asking me to chew their
bioengenetically modifried food for them.
In this economy they can spit on me
for free! I’ve never seen
such a range of faces biting
the hand to mouth
ing off will get you—hey man!
They’re playing my song in here.
I really love this one.
Katherine Orfinger is a writer, artist, and student who received her BA at Stetson University in English with minors in Creative Writing and Digital Arts. She draws inspiration from her Jewish faith and her Floridian hometown. Her work has appeared in Touchstone, Aeolus, Beyond Queer Words, and others.