Join us on Wednesday, April 2 at 5PM for Rapid Fire: City Wide Fellows Reading at the Elebash Recital Hall, The Graduate Center, CUNY. Recipients of emerging writers fellowships (from Cave Canem, the Poetry Project, and Poets House) will share recent work in this hour-long introduction to these rising stars.
Krystal Languell is a recipient of the 2013 “Emerge-Surface-Be” fellowship from the . Read an excerpt from her poem, TONIGHT THIS IS OUR LAST SONG, below.
from TONIGHT THIS IS OUR LAST SONG
A stretch Expedition across from the homeless shelter.
Are you kidding. I talk out loud so no one bothers me.
Cops stare back and insist on greeting. Bus lane cameras.
New so more surveille. Higher now. More text on signs,
lanes painted maroon. Get your swerve on or whatever.
The movies named after poems, wrap them up in tissue
paper. If you’re young, they try to toughen you up. Then
he goes home to his wife. There’s a more instructive way.
It is Christmas, and it is also Wednesday. The hours loosen.
Left all his sentimental things in a hotel room. Tried to gather.
Drank a latte I didn’t need for the transition value. One labor
to the next, before the third shower. I go to the store and tell
my problem to someone who doesn’t work there. In the canvas
of simultaneity. The impending untenable. You praise with force.
Ask for help when you need help. If you stay alive, please
send me an email. Always waiting for business hours to start.
The video reveals the weapon with a little hip drop.
Makes a pocket flip and a crease tuck after belt bounce.
They talk real estate. In sweatpants thinking about money.
Where is she welcome. If they say she looks like landed gentry.
Heels collapse forward in a slow slam and big flip of tails.
They billow. Can she tell the mutual problem without worsening.
Got an excuse for everything. Scrap can be made useful.
See railroad spike and tie sculpture. Farmers market crafts.
Krystal Languell was born in South Bend, Indiana. Two chapbooks are forthcoming: LAST SONG (dancing girl press, 2014) and another from Argos Books in late 2014. FASHION BLAST QUARTER, a chapbook poster, was released by Flying Object in February 2014. A core member of the Belladonna* Collaborative, she also edits the journal Bone Bouquet.
