"Show Notes" by Kat Giordano

i tell you you’re pretty

then “no homo”

at two in the morning.

i’m in an apartment

above a garage

about to burst into flames.

i tell you a lot of things,

opting for white hearts,

the red forbidden.

“you’re awesome” as a proxy

for “i’m fucking attached,”

checking you like a sore in a mouth.

still hurts.

i will enjoy this anyway.

there’s smoke in the air, but

it’s probably nothing to worry about.

these dreams i’m hunting you for sport

and you like that,

blood draining from your brain

down into your ego,

that gorgeous organ

swelling and twitching

under my palm.

i know you want this

small edit to the food chain:

breathless, blameless, animal.

but there’s what we want

and what these strange, natural forces

tell us to want: more

warm blood flowing to the places

that doom us and, one day,

make it hurt.

at two in the morning

i tell you everything

already hurts.

i will enjoy this anyway.

________

kat giordano was born in philadelphia and it's been downhill ever since. their third poetry collection, THUMBSUCKER, is available for preorder from malarkey books. they are also the author of two other poetry collections, a novel, and several embarrassing internet meltdowns. kat is very cool. you like them.

thumbsucker link: malarkeybooks.com/store/thumbsucker

Kat Giordano is @giordkat and @giordkat