FANZINE

-
Traveling the length of a hypothetical office globe

Swallowing at the same time every day a series of yellow, pink, and blue pills

x’ing out each day of the calendar until the prison gates opened for my love

Asking forgiveness in all the wrong places

Trying on a hat and facing the young sales girl in the mirror how old do you think I am, honey? 

Drinking red wine out of a straw










-
Now I think everything has a heart

You put the oh in boat 

Now I think everything is a moving fluttering yearning being capable of mass loss capable of 
feeling alive when touched or when its senses are tipped or licked

Is this how you survive?

Calling all oceanographers!

Or is it, unfortunately, you’re not gonna survive the flood at all?











-
	For may we rest our soft bones in water           Black as your mother’s
	love           Warm as your mother’s love           Sixteen and lord I pray 
	you save me, as they say me           Can I get a oh yeah? then and a
	           PLEASE STAY THE FUCK WHERE YOU ARE           
	       Now you, you,            You can come here           But you, YOU 
	BETTER STAY THE FUCK WHERE YOU ARE           You— You may 
	rise           RISE I said           Rise!           And rinse            yourself Then           
	me           Yes Rinse me With the water that is good           Over the wooden           
	beams Now say Goodbye            Say them All            Yes it’s time Say 
	them now Say them Now           Say them all 	Without
	 letting go we can lose everything










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Shmear every shoft shmuck. 





















-
You aren’t who you pretend to be

Our bulldog licks her ass and then grinds her jaw up and down up and down savoring the 
proteins of her privates

You are who you pretend to be

I stop a neighbor’s hound from what I believe to be raping our bulldog and his owner and I 
get into an argument 

His owner: Are you kidding me? Why would Duke need to rape anyone?

It’s not the drag itself which will take you off your feet

How would you like it if someone kicked you in your balls when you tried to take a fucking 
shower? that’s what that is, when dogs do that, it’s their way of fucking bathing themselves

But the shadow the hiccup the echo after the drag that will make you buckle at your knees




-
You told me to think more
I told you to not think so much
To go more with your gut 
Feeling to go more with your soul
You told me to just listen
I told you I do listen but 
You have to speak a
Little faster sometimes if
You want people to be able to
Keep following you
You would scare me /
I would hurt you











- 
Do you ever think 
Fuck it lets just go and be
Game show people 


















-
How do you know this is the right one

How do you know this is the right way to do it

Do you ever look at a person and go

Gee, if only I had that in my life wouldn’t it be

Better well then this might apply 

To you!












-
No 
I actually—
I don’t

Because it’s 
Actually really hard
To become game show people


























-
Things I will miss

BOOSH / Soul

Fear for the end

Obama Out

dreadnaught 

foods eaten with chopsticks

slow-dancing with someone who turns you on / for the first time

starlight music

food that can be eaten with our hands 

lovebird music lovebirds love 

specifically horns and the dust on top

dreams within dreams the wet ghosts the locks the ghost stories

nests made from mail and books that were once set fire to

the wolf mother the wolf father as the only link to most of all nothing

changing a baby’s diaper for the first time 

standing with our backs against the walls while we wait for bad bad men to pass

our beautiful earth and the reasons why

making love to you in cars / i agree it’s the fixation that keeps me coming back for more  

as well as you and your always detonated and your never detonating ways

———————

_{Poet and performer Valerie Hsiung is the author of three full-length poetry collections: e f g: a trilogy (Action Books, 2016), incantation inarticulate (O Balthazar Press, 2013), and under your face (OBP, 2013). Her poetry and interviews can be found or is forthcoming in an array of places, including American Letters & Commentary, Apiary, Black Nerd Problems, Cloud Rodeo, Cosmonauts Avenue, Bone Bouquet, Denver Quarterly, DIAGRAM, Diode Poetry Journal, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Luna Luna Magazine, Mad Hatters’ Review, Moonshot, New Delta Review, PEN Poetry Series, Prelude, RealPoetik, Tammy, and VOLT. She has performed at Casa Libre en la Solana, Common Area Maintenance, Leon Gallery, Poetic Research Bureau, Rhizome, Shapeshifter Lab, and Treefort Music Festival, among elsewhere. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Hsiung studied literary translation and ecopoetics at Brown University and is currently based out of Brooklyn, New York, where she works as a modern-day matchmaker. She serves as an editor for Poor Claudia. Find her online athttp://flowersintheirmouths.com.}