CINDY JUYOUNG OK
Bartender’s Bargain
Listen I’m young and I know something
about plum noodles, and de-escalation.
Weekly poems, selected by the editors. Featuring new work as well as poems from our rich archives.
Listen I’m young and I know something
about plum noodles, and de-escalation.
Near the end of a long day,
though she hasn’t left the house
Wherefore
the trumpet vine has poisoned me.
I am trying to cherish
this terrible city, this glittering city
I carry a piece of chalk around,
gift ribs to empty sidewalks.
to enjoy a banana
you need only the banana’s name
Two live in Chicago. Two are teachers.
Two are over six feet.
They named the fern Resist.
We haul errors into hospitals, sterilize causes,
strip nouns to pronouns.
In moments the blight
beckons