sadistic / masochistic / bored
this is what pop music does / to the / reanimated corpse
when you’re just a kid; / sallow weak bone / and skin that pinks but won’t bruise
oscillating sex poles and / weighing pain against pleasure / they get you nothing but
full house reruns and / smoke-beige wallpapers and / wasted time
i don’t know / i don’t know anymore / i don’t know
i don’t know what to say but / i’m glad / you were bumping lady gaga
that’s good / that was ten years ago / but you can’t nostalgia-bait a hypertrophic scar
because / all that sleeps beneath are / dormant wounds and
all i want is to saline wash / the pasts / teeth growing out of the wrong places
this fucked-up mouth / all that breathes above / stutter-stepped into soft-jaw swears
and silences / are the futures / depression and nostalgia
are body genres / like milk and tylenol / curdled and tampered
Riley James Russo is a sophomore creative writing student split between Ohio and Pennsylvania whose creative efforts mostly focus on depicting the horrors of the human condition.