‘Glitter Wasn’t Invented in New Jersey; it Was Invented by Cleopatra & Liberated by Martha Stewart: A Sonnet ‘ by Erin Mizrahi

Impossible Islands 5
by M.S. Cohen

Glitter Wasn’t Invented in New Jersey, it Was Invented by Cleopatra & Liberated by Martha Stewart: A Sonnet

After CA Conran

Let’s push confetti and glitter to their existential limits
I mean let’s have a good cry
I’m up to my frown lines in supplements 
I’ve never had a band but 
I’ve come up with hundreds of band names
My latest is Stevia Nicks
When you live with a fist around your throat
You commit small acts of rebellion
Like letting the dishes pile up or sexting your rabbi 
The last time I saw M he was alive in Brooklyn
Talking about the interconnectedness of trees
I swear I didn’t mean to write another poem about grief
Can this still be a happy poem
A dragonfly just landed on my toe, am I ovulating?


Erin Mizrahi (she/they) is a writer, collaborator, artist and co-founder of the literary and arts journal, Cobra Milk. A Pushcart nominee and recipient of fellowships from Asylum Arts and the Institute for Jewish Creativity, their writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Maudlin HouseGinger ZineDream PopGASHER Journal and elsewhere. 


M.S. Cohen is an artist, writer and musician born in the United States and residing in Toronto. His artwork focuses on existentially topical themes like alienation, dislocation and the construction of selfhood in a shifting semantic landscape.  https://www.facebook.com/marccohentoronto