"From Bitchfest of Champions" by Eli Masterson

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1.

 I started repeating your name so

 

you’d tilt toward meaningless

 

but when you became strange

 

again I remembered

 

all strangeness is fleeting,

 

only the ordinary slow will stay

 

and I don’t live at home anymore.

 

 

2.

You’re like a monotone building that houses

 

a job I have just quit, and which I leave quietly

 

smiling and wearing my holiday cape

 

 

3.

I’ve got the whole world doing whatever

 

whatever you can get over the counter

 

roman candles and a Christmas sweater

 

 

I’m agonistic when it comes to the weather

 

but still believe in tight pants and heat death

 

so whatever it is that you’re doing now

 

 

get over it

 

 

4.

I’d rather just wander in the

 

darker orchards and groves

 

and hold dear an abstract love

 

like an empty jar or artwork

 

that has not been made yet

 

 

I was never the profound one

 

but I follow through and now

 

there are no more tunnels

 

in which to play make-believe,

 

no more Victorians, no more

 

joke Martha Stewart fetishes

 

 

maybe I grabbed all your

 

white fucking wicker and

 

threw it down the stairs

 

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5.

I won’t call you honey

 

and won’t call your hotline

 

but I’m still wearing

 

your white flag

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