I Don’t Know Who Went The Far

The pretty girls with the pretty dresses are staring at me from the window. I made the mistake of sleeping in again, and here I am on this cobblestone outside this window wrapped in a newspaper and they’re looking at me like the what. I am a narwhal, I think at them, I am a stranded mermaid. Don’t come near me, I will hex you and then you’ll be singing the sorrow of all the broken women in the world except that they have air condition- ing and probably one of those make-up cases with the flowers on it full of Xanax they scored last night in the bathroom thinking they were real tough, real cool. Get in my shoes and no don’t, you don’t want to be me you just want to watch about me on the television. I remember girls like this I went to this audition once to be a cocktail waitress there were 200 of us girls on this roof some were in bikinis we all had number signs on and when mine got called the guy sat across me at the table holding up my resume real annoyed and he goes you have a masters degree why do you want to do this and I go so what I need the money and he goes I’m not going to hire you because I don’t want you to think too hard about what goes on in here.

Nicolle Elizabeth is the poetry editor in residence at Word Riot. She also runs a column for The Believer’s Tumblr but mostly she writes fiction. Her actual journal/memoir is forthcoming from Keyhole Books and you can read her slaying vampires at glassatlassassafras.blogspot.com.