T.A. Noonan
Born Again
I’m learning to use your platinum card,
to tolerate your mispronunciation of Versace, disaster, empire.
I’m learning advanced fondue techniques,
the boiling point of cobalt,
how to paint chopsticks in a moving vehicle,
& the proper use of a semicolon; this is an example.
I’m learning when to say when,
dead languages like Latin & FORTRAN,
what you mean when you say,
Of course that belt makes you look like a hooker!
I’m learning sex is honest work.
I’m learning financial independence with Kegels.
I’m learning where to buy land mines
& cinnamon schnapps, who stole my teal eyeshadow.
I’m learning that my ass is more than a g-string hanger,
to close the door when you leave.
I’m learning to practice.
I’m learning to colonize,
how to wear hot pink beneath a communion dress,
that only whores wear champagne,
that I should never trust anything
if I can see the backs of its eyes.
The Backbone of Night // Runway
It was hard, according to the gaga-
heeled girls, to understand the world.
There were just too many variables―
popped seams, a raw hem, curls fallen
left instead of right, the iron crackling
scalp. Everyone says there’s nothing
beyond the runway. Its galaxy feels
central, but Sagan insists we live in the
outskirts. Here, without skirts, or with
our skirts outside Carl’s cosmic legs,
air is a trick of girdle & pussy. The
light ― it’s often overhead ― trickles across
our thighs, scaffolds the crowd. They
call it the Backbone of Night, their spines
sheered by last-season theories.
T.A. Noonan (http://www.sundresspublications.com/tanoonan/) is the author of the forthcoming novella four sparks fall (Chicago Center for Literature and Photography), as well as Dress the Stars (Dusie Kollektiv), The Bone Folders (Sundress Publications), Petticoat Government (Gold Wake Press), Darjeeling (Ahadada Books), and Balm (Flaming Giblet Press). Her work has appeared in Ninth Letter,Verse Daily, RHINO, specs, Phoebe, Harpur Palate, and many others. Currently, she lives on Florida's Treasure Coast with her husband.
Return to September 2013 Edition
I’m learning to use your platinum card,
to tolerate your mispronunciation of Versace, disaster, empire.
I’m learning advanced fondue techniques,
the boiling point of cobalt,
how to paint chopsticks in a moving vehicle,
& the proper use of a semicolon; this is an example.
I’m learning when to say when,
dead languages like Latin & FORTRAN,
what you mean when you say,
Of course that belt makes you look like a hooker!
I’m learning sex is honest work.
I’m learning financial independence with Kegels.
I’m learning where to buy land mines
& cinnamon schnapps, who stole my teal eyeshadow.
I’m learning that my ass is more than a g-string hanger,
to close the door when you leave.
I’m learning to practice.
I’m learning to colonize,
how to wear hot pink beneath a communion dress,
that only whores wear champagne,
that I should never trust anything
if I can see the backs of its eyes.
The Backbone of Night // Runway
It was hard, according to the gaga-
heeled girls, to understand the world.
There were just too many variables―
popped seams, a raw hem, curls fallen
left instead of right, the iron crackling
scalp. Everyone says there’s nothing
beyond the runway. Its galaxy feels
central, but Sagan insists we live in the
outskirts. Here, without skirts, or with
our skirts outside Carl’s cosmic legs,
air is a trick of girdle & pussy. The
light ― it’s often overhead ― trickles across
our thighs, scaffolds the crowd. They
call it the Backbone of Night, their spines
sheered by last-season theories.
T.A. Noonan (http://www.sundresspublications.com/tanoonan/) is the author of the forthcoming novella four sparks fall (Chicago Center for Literature and Photography), as well as Dress the Stars (Dusie Kollektiv), The Bone Folders (Sundress Publications), Petticoat Government (Gold Wake Press), Darjeeling (Ahadada Books), and Balm (Flaming Giblet Press). Her work has appeared in Ninth Letter,Verse Daily, RHINO, specs, Phoebe, Harpur Palate, and many others. Currently, she lives on Florida's Treasure Coast with her husband.
Return to September 2013 Edition