TO THE STROBE LIGHTS AT 1150

PUBLISHED POETRY INCLUDED IN MY FORTHCOMING COLLECTION: LETTERS TO NOWHERE

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unzip my skin. i’m in the bloodstream.

you and a dollar are curved over laminate, 

closing the door to our last name,

leaves are changing from emerald to copper 

and there’s plenty of time for three a.m. acid sex

—eleven years, to be exact. 

but tonight’s got me sucking technicolor 

ring pops and forgetting our forever 

is as short as my skirt. take off my mini, 

but leave my bindi on—those corner-lid gems 

sing rabbit-in-the-moon’s out-of-body experience

—will you meet me? 

lust’s just a hologram behind strawberry lips. 

will you meet me? sleep’s twelve hours away 

and i’ll forget our julys, searching for space 

in a room of mirrors, where i can’t see 

your moonlit skin or your bloodshot eyes—

twenty-four’s a phase. what’s worse? 

the white powder crushed or the truth to be swallowed? 

the ridges right now will flatline tomorrow—

my cat’s named after a writer and i’m teaching 

school in the morning. i tell you: 

i’ll name our daughter kavita, 

so her name will mean poem. we name her 

answered. bindi’s buried in a drawer 245 miles 

from you—i have two cats named after poets 

and i’m writing in the morning. addictions always win. 

i was your caduceus, first edition—some stories, lover,

cannot be bought—i know the answer, 

but i’ll ask anyway. will you meet me?

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Originally published in Humans of the World, March 2023