IN PICTURES, EVEN THE WALLPAPER GLOWS
I’ve been talking to this girl online—Jack calls her
Internet Crush Katie, but she’ll be Real Human Being Katie
soon enough, & that’ll fuck
everything right up.
In the smartphone pictures she sends me,
her breasts burn white, overexposed and chewable;
like a model in a Bacardi ad, she throws
her head back, perpetually laughing,
surrounded by girls, more girls, so many girls,
girls who are all
just my imaginary type, girls who flaunt
cool band t-shirts & expensive haircuts,
girls who might text me cute things:
let’s watch ice cubes melt
or let’s poke bugs with sticks together.
Girls who wouldn’t ask why the porn I watch
is so weird or call my mom when they haven’t heard
from me. I bet they wouldn’t still be friends with all my old friends
so I don’t get to see them. They would never remember
to tuck in the sheets.
"New! Poem by Jess Novak" captures the essence of contemporary life lived and imagined online remarkably well. I loved how the Jess Novak has used spacing and punctuation to complement the strong Imagist style of the poem. The poem works at various levels, conveying expertly the liberation of the online experience while simultaneously saddening us with the ephemeral quality of contemporary communication and fleeting personal relations. The last line is deeply nostalgic and brings the reader back to reality. A poem to be read by everyone and treasured for its dramatic imagination and deep honesty.
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