Thrush Poetry Journal
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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.




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