bring cigarettes,

all the poets are alcoholics

don’t think you smoke

but it’d be nice

to try our first together

co ugh              l au gh c oug h lau g h

do it

and we can whistler’s mother—

faff around with realism

threewheel landscape puzzles

even armchair buffoon in limp blue

my cat has two eyes, I think,

and his ears are bigger than his head

just like you     l a u gh lau g h

want a ballad? here goes:

ecce homo qui est faba

do it yourself id ipsum

baked, refried, lima, fava

ill green car au citron

left eyebrow raise if you like it

right eyebrow raise if you hate it

both eyebrows up if you’d rather

long furby        l aug h lau gh la ugh

you knitted oddity,

ya sausage

rollin about town

teach me to be all translation



Jillian A. Fantin (@jilly_stardust) is an MFA candidate at the University of Notre Dame. They are the recipient of a 2021 Poet Fellowship from the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, and their poetry is published in The American Journal of Poetry, Sprung Formal, TIMBER, Entropy, and elsewhere.