Dorothea Lasky

You have changed me already. I am a fireball
That is hurtling towards the sky to where you are
You can choose not to look up but I am a giant orange ball
That is throwing sparks upon your face
...

The rain whistled.

A taxi brought me to your apartment building
And there I stood.
...

This is a world where there are monsters
There are monsters everywhere, racoons and skunks
There are possums outside, there are monsters in my bed.
There is one monster. He is my little one.
...

Kissing the bankteller outside his stairs
In Brighton, MA I cannot lie. I felt the hope
That we once felt, if only for an instant
O the lovely bankteller, like a moose he
...

I

Students, look at this table
And now when you see a man six feet tall
You can call him a fathom.
...

When my dad first started to die
All my mom could remember
Was the time he kicked her out
After they first started dating
...

I wanted to tell the veterinary assistant about the cat video Jason sent me
But I resisted for fear she'd think it strange
I am very lonely
Yesterday my boyfriend called me, drunk again
...

I never noticed before
How the red flowers hang from the blue branches
I never noticed before the light in this room
I never noticed the way the air is cool again
...

Because speaking to the dead is not something you want to do
When you have other things to do in your day
Like take out the trash or use the vacuum
In the edge between the stove and cupboard
...

Love makes you feel alive
Johnny my animal you have no idea
How beautiful you are to me in the morning
When it is 5 a.m. and I am lonely
...

Until I find a name
I will not put it in the soul calculator
I will leave it free and open and unnamed
...

Promising myself  I would not do this again
Is what kept me going

A friend told me to
And I listened
...

To perform death is something only humans would do
No animal would sit there
With a blank look on its face
Just because the camera is there
...