by Patricia Bingham
ODE TO MY LOCAL TJ MAXX
Fuck consumerist culture except for when my local TJ Maxx has bowls in the exact shade of teal to match my dinner set and quench the aching in my heart you know I’m helpless in the face of a floral design all morals and principles just evaporate away and my bed may remain forever empty but TJ Maxx has sweaters galore to keep me warm the sizing is always a bit suspect but half the fun is getting to go back to return an item and further abuse my wallet sure I’m all for fair trade but where else can I find an embroidered pillowcase handmade in India for 12.99 it’s not like they’ll let me into the country anyway and we all know skincare is a scam most beauty influencers need psychiatric help but the niacinamide comes in such a pretty bottle and if my plant is dying the least I can do is gift it a beautiful pot to live out the rest of its days in serenity and no I don’t need another picture frame but have you considered that 90% of my mental health hinges on my apartment’s aesthetic value and the truth is if I haven’t spoken aloud to another person in three days I know I can go to TJ Maxx and the Bangladeshi man organising the shopping carts will say salaam as I walk in and maybe that’s all it really takes to live another day
Zoha Sh (she/her) is a queer South Asian Muslim poet and writer. Her work explores the relationships between time, love, and God, and has been published in the Liminal Review, Fahmidan Journal, B’K’s All My Relations, Poetically Magazine, and elsewhere. You can find more of her work at zohashpoetry.com.
Patricia Bingham is a self-taught artist, originally from Chicago and currently living in Idaho. She realized early on that artists are compelled to take notice, and want to share what they see. She was a very annoying child wanting everyone to “look at this, look at that!” until she found a quieter way to make this happen, and that’s how her art journey began: First with photography, then (rather circuitously) to painting, collage, and assemblage in the form of colorful wooden boxes. She discovered that once a box is completed it needed to be filled. The box dictates what the contents might be, but it can go both ways: A series of photos might require a certain type of box or a box might require a certain kind of art, and thus more art needs to be created, and then more boxes, ad infinitum. What joy! She participates and sells her work locally and online, and is especially thrilled when her work finds its way into a literary magazine for that’s where it longs to be. Instagram.com/zoopsiart; Facebook.com/Zoospia.gallery; http://zoopsiart.com