Image © Alex Highet 2018
| by Grace Yamada | January 26, 2018 |
The Yale student who was killed in a crash the day she graduated
The one with a job offer at the New Yorker
Some people get everything
That’s what I was thinking about
Watching the train
Roll in like a fog bank
Like a venomous beast
Eyes clicking open
I want to remind everyone
That I wasn’t born here either
That I’m from grassland
And traveled over mountains and deserts
To feel the sharp elbows and purse corners
On the morning train
Later, kissing the inside of her leg
I think of salmon
Wild caught and orange and I’m so hungry
My organs grow cannibalistic
And when I pull her up
She’s covered in the slime of paradise
The gloss of a newborn thing
Just descended
With the body sleeping
I can yell
“Believer, oh believer
Believe this”
Dropping my baby over the ledge watching it burst into a thousand pages
Weeks later we’re in the same room
Soapy coffee mingling with sour liquor
And this why you should love the grid
And I won’t love you til you do
Unlike her
He goes over my body with both hands
The way I’d eat a strawberry in the dark
Checking my skin for bruises
When he emerges his face has the sheen of artificial butter
And lying back my body floats away from me
Until we only touch at the wrists
And I think about setting her free
with small silver scissors
__________
Grace Yamada (b. 1990) is a Canadian librarian in New York. She holds degrees in art history and information science. She also serves as chief dramaturge and literary consultant for The Constellation Project, a science fiction theatre collective.
Alex Highet has been making collages as prizes for monthly open-mic Uke Boogie (now in Berlin, Edinburgh and Sligo) for seven years, and realised in 2015 it’s time to take it as very serious fun. He has been massaging human bodies professionally for the same amount of time. His musical project, We’re Only Made Of Snow, released a self-titled EP this year, and can be found doing solo and full band shows regularly in Berlin. Alex hasn’t won any awards, but regularly rewards himself gold stars for successes such as leaving the house or flirting with hot boys.