Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Jessica Provencio - One Poem

Warm Broken Cookies

i sleep under the citibank atm
where the machine warms the sidewalk
people step over me
on their way to overdraw their accounts
to pay to overstep their boundaries

i was pretty once when i arrived on the scene
pretty smile pretty clothes pretty face
after a year i am invisible
dirty shabby dingy
i give the pretty people sore eyes

the last time i went to get tested
the overworked volunteer nurse looked worried
she asked me to wait while she asked the doctor something
i snuck out the side door of the clinic and never went back

the night shift man at mrs fields who speaks broken english
gives me warm broken cookies sometimes
but lately i’ve been too sick to keep anything down
and they only make me want to cry
they remind me of the hallmark idea of home

i know now that it is a home that i will never know
i won’t live that long
they have cocktails that cost thousands
that are rumored to stave off the inevitable or save
all i want is a cocktail that will make me numb

they come spilling out of the clubs at 2am
pretty performers in a perfect show
laughing about who they will take home
i want someone to take me home
i’ve never had a home



Jess lives in Los Angeles with her wife, four cats, and three tarantulas. She is a supervisor at a coffee shop and a substitute English teacher. Her goal is to get tattoos in as many languages as possible.

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