CALL US FOR A PRAYER, LINES OPEN ALL DAY - nicolle elizabeth

CALL US FOR A PRAYER, LINES OPEN ALL DAY

nicolle elizabeth

(1) Party

Somebody outside said “snails, the post-modernist human condition,” so I took out my notebook to jot it down. The kid in the corner, who I didn’t see but had eyes glowing through the dark looked up at me, one leg crossed over the other and said, “I hope you write about beer and hell.”

(2) How old was Aretha Franklin?

I am germinating watermelon and sweet basil seeds on my radiator in New York. I am trying for another life.

(3) Jealousy

Thor stop humping the tree. Thor stop humping the tree. Thor stop humping the tree.

(4) Look to You

The Leviathan in the water was really stinking up the place. Every time it came up for air or to see what was happening its breath turned the sky neon green. People walked around wearing cloth masks. We watched its tail flop back in the water. She put down her binoculars, “Well if you’d just say you were sorry,” she said to me.

(5) A Game of Chess, From T.S. Elliot’s The Wasteland

“This is what Jim and his wife do every day and every night,” you say to me, naked, over the chess board between our legs. “Beat me,” you say.