Originally published in Igxante: An Anthology, released November 2018.
Beware of ideological purity: what looks like a pearl
will have you sweating refrigerated water, puking into a bag
and wondering where all those liberals came from.
Cats and dogs are more alike than they’re different,
although sandwiches from Neptune taste different when you’re an alien fish.
Captain Hook disappears from the old color film
from the era of black and white, reappears and lectures
the handsome man about why pirates can never mix with guys in suits
and no one cares except the whiteboard behind them displaying the name of your nurse
from yesterday, the vase of withered flowers in the blue and purple painting,
or the cautionary tale against getting up and falling
that you’ve never heeded before and you’re not about to start.