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"Selbstportrait mit Kater" • Einstürzende Neubauten (by Kimmy Joy)


the speaker of the poem watches the dancing lights

of the today show and elbows me in the ribs

when the meteorologist says it’s a perfect day

to wake up from a coma, to take sunshine

like a pill, like communion. together we tie shoes

and get our purse together. i stumble outside

and walk to the grocery store, run my list to the tuneless

tune of a Neubauten song. the speaker of the poem

stops to take a photo of tree shadows and says

isn’t that the most beautiful drainage ditch

you’ve ever seen? the meteorologist agrees;

says in a month or so, there’ll be ducklings

in the cattails. my prescription sunglasses press down

against that weird painful lump above my right ear.

blixa takes a selfie with his cat. i’m going to forget

to buy peach yogurt and it’ll start a fight. the speaker

of the poem is whispering to the meteorologist

about the time they held each other, just for a moment,

and she understood why tornadoes and hurricanes

carry such destruction and abandon. i yell at her

to stay on task. she describes the shape of the clouds:

that one there looks like a giant hand flipping the bird.

the meteorologist says those are cumulus clouds.

i have to google how to spell cumulus. somewhere,

a 12-year-old boy giggles. blixa has a lot of thoughts

about what kind of blue he sees. i haven’t looked

at the sky in years. we need so many things,

lotion for the tattoo chosen by the speaker of the poem,

a new charging cord for my wireless earbuds. my eyes

hurt from the dazzling sunshine. the meteorologist

and the speaker of the poem are making out

in the middle of the parking lot. good for them.



Kimmy Joy is a poet from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her work has appeared in Bullshit Lit and Stanchion Zine, among others. Her previous books of poetry mattress dungeon, MESSY, and This is Where I Live Now are available for purchase online. 

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