by Kari Flickinger
You’re Bound to Be in Trouble, But Not for Long
Now that the Supreme Court is using X-Rays to decide who’s innocent and who’s guilty, why should I go all to pieces when I’m hit by lightning? I’ve seen worse. I grew up in Hell’s Kitchenette. Yesterday, around noon I was sipping some toy wine and thinking I should talk to my personal injury attorney, but he’d stolen the horses, and lit out for the dormitories. Like choosing between a striped shirtdress and a checked pants suit, it felt like a prisoner’s dilemma. Thank goodness it’s still a free country. Of course, it’s not every day you get a chance to lock your family in the family room. Juniper says I sure know how to have a good time, even though I’m strictly DIY and do all my own sleepwalking. Fortunately, I’m not religious, because I’m a big supporter of interstellar nepotism, although I receive some bad information every now and then. You know what they say: opportunity knocks when you’re least prepared. Say, what are you planning to do with the body of that little green man? It’s not even close to dinner time yet.
Brad Rose was born and raised in Los Angeles, and lives in Boston. He is the author three collections of poetry and flash fiction, Pink X-Ray (Big Table Publishing, 2015), de/tonations, (Nixes Mate Press, 2020), and Momentary Turbulence (Cernvena Barva Press, 2020). WordinEdgeWise from Cerven Barva Press is forthcoming in later 2021. His sixth chapbook, Collateral, was just released by Right Hand Pointing. Brad’s poetry has appeared in, The Los Angeles Times, The American Journal of Poetry, New York Quarterly, Cloud Bank, and other publications. Brad’s website is: www.bradrosepoetry.com Selected readings are available at http://bradrosepoetry.com/audio-readings/.
Kari Flickinger is the author of The Gull and the Bell Tower (Femme Salvé Books) and Ceiling Fan (forthcoming with Rare Swan Press). Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net. She is an alumna of UC Berkeley and a Poetry and Music Editor for Storyteller’s Refrain.