The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Angela Veronica Wong’s “how to survive a hotel fire”

angelaveronicawong

From Part Five of Angela Veronica Wong’s book how to survive a hotel fire

HOW TO SURVIVE A HOTEL FIRE

first stop the fucking tears because it’s pathetic, really, all this crying like you

are a single woman at home on valentine’s day, watching a particularly relevant

romantic comedy. just because you are in the airport

doesn’t mean there is a home to return to. just because you were fucked

against a wall doesn’t mean it will happen again. in fact,

i’ve never been kicked out like that before. i can barely

bear anything anymore, which is to say i

need a boyfriend because carrying my own stuff

is boring. when i sneeze i think: this is how i will die: caught

somewhere between all those things that

weren’t and the ways we prepared. a secret is: i’ll love you

even if you can’t keep my hands warm while we make up animals

and place them in zoos. or: there is little to appreciate when you wake up too late.

i can list the things i didn’t mean to do on two hands.

This selection comes from Angela Veronica Wong’s book how to survive a hotel fire, available from Coconut Books. Purchase your copy here!

Angela Veronica Wong is the author of several poetry chapbooks. She is on the internet at http://www.angelaveronicawong.com.

T.A. Noonan is the author of several books and chapbooks, most recently four sparks fall: a novella (Chicago Center for Literature and Photography, 2013) and, with Erin Elizabeth Smith, Skate or Die (Dusie Kollektiv, 2014). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Reunion: The Dallas ReviewWest Wind Review, HobartNinth Letter, and Phoebe, among others. A weightlifter, crafter, priestess, and all-around woman of action, she serves as the Associate Editor of Sundress Publications, Founding Editor of Flaming Giblet Press, and Literary Arts Director for the Sundress Academy of the Arts.

 

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