Bold City Rats

this is the dreamscape
our delusive contentment

the afterglow and the roach
the street sweepers
the skin scratchers
and the dope

we are the rats in the trash on the riverfront
watching the river as she chokes

Munchies

I leave my shoes
sometimes toe to ankle bone
sometimes heel to heel
sometimes north to south

I sit my ass down on a cat-scratched yoga mat

this is the me where I belong

sucking salt from my fingers and thumbs
counting life-affirming potato shards
wishing with a mouthful of canker stars

History

kid cuisine all star chicken nuggets:
conventional oven, how-to
where the fuck is my frenulum?
are boiled peanuts good for you?
rose syrup: best by?
blue dye evaporation line
symptoms of excessive dopamine
and the spiritual symbolism of the bumblebee

Laura H.K is a United States Marine Corps veteran with an MFA in creative writing from The University of Tampa. Her most recent work is forthcoming or appears in: 2River, Miracle Monocle, Hyperlimenous, Bop Dead City, Enizagam, Typishly, The Bangalore Review, The Gyroscope Review, Poetry Circle, The Ibis Head Review, Chaleur Magazine, The Write Launch, Night Picnic, Noir Nation, Left Hooks, Flypaper Magazine, Pouch, Lady Blue Literary Magazine and WOWsdom:The Girl’s Guide To The Positive and The Possible created by Donna Orender. She is also the winner of The 2018 Wainright Award for Poetry.

Image by Ewan Munro, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons