One Poem
and there is a STORM
AND IT’S LIKE
the flavor SUNSHINE is said
to taste
like white grape ?????
hot bother rot WATER
kai says would u
say it tastes
like white grape
no
i wouldn’t
say anything tastes like
white grape
i don’t know what that
IS
even
i am in the city
that WORKS
i didn’t know
some people just
worked HARD
there was a lack of PLAY
sun in the shiny shit
well
it was fun while it was
FUNDED by chase
travel
miles and miles i flit
for the sake of eeeeeeeeee
FRIENDS ?????
professional developers
ballet ballad again again again
imagine developée
was what i WROTE auto
matically corrected in the document
automatonically incorrigible in the SOUP
of the airplane’s upper deck
can i move yr bag pls
no BITCH
everyone on the airplane is apple JUICED
my dad is only not angry
for fifty minutes at a TIME she said
tiring way to tire
my dad is only dad
imminent birthday
i am LYING
on the couch ha
sorry bout it
writhing in a notebook
that is virtual and inchoate
hello
is that a KEY
i see up your nose
oh well
better than a flower
yay it’s kai
bringing me a YEAR
bringing me a miso salad
dressing for my
WOUND i flew with
wafting whatever
in the midwest wash
i used soap
i am CLEAN
after alllllllllll
yay a door
is adorable my middle
NAME
sorry
teehee lots of those
slopping around
in the sauce of the
POEM ugh
not me naming the OBJECT
baby baby obsolescence
i am getting OLDER
like almost thirty
like almost thrive
maybe tomorrow
let’s try that again
maybe TOMORROW
flirting with normalcy
snorting in a skort
i mean i’ll stand
at a podium WHENEVER
microphonically approbatory
one glass of ROSÉ pls
health springs nocturnal
the pope once came to
PHILADELPHIA the city
i am absenteeing
i totally drink TEA
in kai’s house which tastes
not so tacitly
of brown RICE
slurp hard mattress imagine
me princess and the peeing
i got up to do that
yay a bathroom
ow my SLEEP
it’s totally apnea
just kidding that’s just
my biggest FEAR
(((((((death ??????????????))))))) ugh
what about a MONSTER
the vibe is like
i’m wearing a t shirt
drinking mojito FLAVORING
la la la
it’s HOT
and the flavor doesn’t go
to your throat
i explained it’s
all the way in the FRONT
door? key
it’s like
i came here to read about WORK
and i didn’t do my JOB
it’s like i came to
the city that WORKS and
WPA’d my ass
into some wifi
why fire someone
over lost TIME
pay me for my time OF
whatever oh DAY
thunder bowling in
and we discussed the
DERECHO of 2020
when the bone collector
laughed in his t shirt
and everyone was in IOWA
except the difference was
i never went BACK
it’s my first date
in chicago i am lying
on kai’s couch
commandeering a form
i remembered
ummm
i used to write
so then i flew
and what do u think
oh i was going to EXPLAIN
the flavor
of the seltzer i’m sipping
in the i of
a STORM
………………………
i’m crashing ?????
∩
Juliet Gelfman-Randazzo lives in Philadelphia, where she curates the reading series Spit Poetry. She is the author of the poetry chapbooks “Boring Eclipse” (The Year, 2026) and “DUH” (Bullshit Lit, 2022), and her work appears or is forthcoming in The Iowa Review, Joyland, The Offing, Poetry Northwest, and The Cleveland Review of Books, among others. She can be followed @tall.spy on instagram but she can never be caught.