1.
The only thing I heard this morning was the 
low murmuring of 
CNN France & the unmistakable 
sound of walls falling		

Woman: Am I making all of this 
clear enough for you?

Man: No. Not exactly 

2.
On this floor there are not horses, but at least 
ten biological 
fathers. It’s only a matter of time 
before one of them knocks
on the door& demands my underwear back

Neither of us will come out of this 
poetry alive: your final
text from the gate 

3.
When you get into Cleveland make 
sure to tell the front 
desk there that all of the liquids 
I have lovingly poured 
into you are yours to keep

4
It’s midnight in Rome. I drained the 
bathtub, yet somehow I am 
not any less self-contained 

5.
My father texted again. He’s been at the Palo 
Alto Sephora 
for the last hour skirting the issue

6.
Truth is, I’m a little ugly today. I aired out 
the mattress, cleaned 
the blood off the sheets, hung them 
out in the hallway 

7.
That stack of trays in the bathroom. I’ve called three 
times but 
the maid refuses to take them until I have 
proof that I JACKED
you again 

8.
Woman: When I finally broke into 
the hotel WiFi 
I erased my entire consumer 
history, deleted every last one of 
my concepts, flushed what 
evidence remained down the toilet

Man: Did you burn what was left? 

9.
When I was 21 I fucked a man who 
was six feet tall but still had 
all of his milk teeth. He was 
married six weeks later 


10.
The maid gets down on her knees, lifts up 
my dress, & spreads 
my legs as far apart as she can. Supposedly 
to keep pace w/my heart or 
maybe w/hers
Maid: Your body was not the bill of 
goods you were SOLD

11. 
Jack Kennedy got so many women 
for one simple 
reason. He knew that water is only 
ever the image of water 

12.
I’ve had a pissy feeling in my gut 
since before breakfast which my 
phone keeps autocorrecting to “pussy” 

13.
Finally finished licking each of the 
maid’s knuckles clean & then  
like a good soldier she promised that 
she will cart away 
the last of the salt under the bed 
when she leaves (she, who is 
blessed among women)

14.
Until I moved to California I knew 
nothing of men & their urges,
or at least, that is the story I tell

15.
I smell. I move wetly

16.
There is my father walking 
slowly out into the Bay

17.
Originally he was probably made of glass 

18.
The tracks he left in the sand 
being the clearest evidence I have 
seen yet that poetry actually does in fact exist