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Three Poems
Francesca Kritikos

Summer 2022
APATHY CHIC

Vomit in trash cans         sinks
                your palms
Everything             deserves me

        Should I beg for you?
Bodies aren’t that           precious
               but Fake always turns Real

        In the photo of us
              with your arm around me
while I clutch       my purse

        Greed is innate
The body is just     a resource
              not a home

Daughter you can fuck
        Consumption economy
Binge-purge me      Repeat

        Do you know how it feels
when people pray    for the opposite
             of what you want

SIMPLE TRUTH ®

You said it would be OK
if I came

I never asked you for anything
until I did

Checking for your double text
tonight, impatient

while you put one of your other kids
to sleep

Tomorrow at the grocery store I’ll deliberate
on the brand

of laxative tea that I believe is targeted
to my current ideal demographic

I’ll imagine you watching me
being such a good girl

for you, such a good
consumer

Look, how I can wait
for someone

to tell me what I want

SAPPHIRE

I watch fistfights unfold
like flowers blossoming

Drugs and your nails
I remember drugs and your nails

My father told me my eyes
look their true color when I wear gray

Wrapped in your ex’s floral bedspread
I remember men yelling on the street outside

Pointing to the Virgin Mary triptych,
my father said, Like that

I’ll always miss the summer
when you asked for what you took

You won’t see me leave
My birthstone is the darkest




















11:50:37
Monday Nov 5 2018