Drinking hard lemonade
At a progressive community building event,
I am spying for company, someone
Cisgendered, I admit,
But confession is a form of progress, I think.
Go glamorous, I say, to myself, out loud,
Go Italian, why not?
Go short too, why is everyone here
So much taller than me,
So much thinner with far less hair?
On a distant picnic blanket, I find
A conversation as radical as reality,
She smiles at my Marx, I admire her Engels,
I tell her how no one currently
Exploits my labor and she leaves me alone.
Ben Nardolilli currently lives in Arlington, Virginia. His work has
appeared in Perigee Magazine, Red Fez, Danse Macabre, The 22 Magazine,
Quail Bell Magazine, Elimae, fwriction, THEMA, Pear Noir, The Minetta
Review, and Yes Poetry. He has a chapbook Common Symptoms of an
Enduring Chill Explained, from Folded Word Press. He blogs at
mirrorsponge.blogspot.com and is looking to publish a novel.