Elisa Gabbert and Kathleen Rooney


THE RULES

First, there’s the beauty of conformity to “fate”:
half “lost in romance,” half sad knowing
the finish gets built into the start, fated to stop
like the end of a song, “faded to black.” This
is why it’s better to use a red pen when
doing “the math.” I was adding up the damages,
trying not to “save” but to “salvage”
the date. By way of “explanation,” we’re all
different “someones” in different situations.
What did I “mean”? I “meant” whatever
you think I meant when I said you looked
like an “angel,” sitting in the last barstool,
where you “received” the idea to “shotgun”
the beers. If DeBeers is to be believed,
diamonds are “forever,” but so are tattoos.
I wouldn’t have suggested “sex” if
I’d known you’d be such a “virgin” about it.
I’m sorry if that’s “offensive,” but I’ve been
alone all day & I’ve become so “weird”
here, left to my own “devices.” The silence
is imperfect, pocked with “blemishes,”
insofar as “silence” can be perceived.



FAMOUS LAST WORDS

DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH—MY HEAD HURTS
WHEN I LAUGH; I'M SORRY FOR EVERYTHING;
THE SITUATION IS A MILLION, BILLION TIMES WORSE
IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN HEAVEN; “NOTHING”
IS SHAKESPEAREAN CODE FOR “VAGINA”
AND THERE ARE SEVERAL A PRIORI REASONS
WHY NOBODY ELSE UNDERSTANDS ME, BUT
I’M NOT SURE I WANT TO BE UNDERSTOOD.
ADMIRATION INEVITABLY TURNS INTO JEALOUSY
THE BETTER YOU GET AT HIDING, I MEAN
LEGERDEMAIN. THERE’S AN ELEGANCE
TO AN EYELESS FACE—OR WAS IT A FACELESS
MOUTH? CHANCE IS NEVER, EVER ON YOUR SIDE,
SO REJECT CHANCE. RELY ON FATE.


Elisa Gabbert is the poetry editor of Absent and the author of two collections of poetry: The French Exit (Birds LLC,2010) and Thanks for Sending the Engine, a chapbook (Kitchen Press, 2007). Her poems have recently appeared in The Awl, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, The Laurel Review, Pleiades, Salt Hill, and Sentence, among other journals. Her nonfiction has appeared in Mantis, Open Letters Monthly, and The Monkey & The Wrench: Essays into Contemporary Poetics. She blogs at The French Exit.

Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, a non-profit dedicated to the publication of literary work in hybrid genres. Her most recent books include the essay collection For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs (Counterpoint, 2010) and the poetry chapbook, After Robinson Has Gone (Greying Ghost Press, 2011).
 
 
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