The Book Nook Chronicles

Poem inspired by Samantha Irby’s Quietly Hostile

WINTER IN CHICAGO—
no one wants to even leave their houses
let alone put on pants with a zipper.
If I'm gonna go out, 
I need a bra and shoes on by 6:55
or that shit's not fucking happening.

How do the properly hydrated
among you get through the goddamned day?

Circling the drain of self-doubt
like a funhouse mirror without the fun,
what if I died like Elvis?

I am powerless in the face of a person
who has scolded my unruly eyebrows.