This selection, chosen by guest editor L.M. Cole, is from Trick Mirror or Your Computer Screen by tommy wyatt blake (Fifth Wheel Press 2022).
What’s Hot on Myspace Music
POP
hoarding young crushes / bland and blond / in bad
songs for your bad band / lines stolen / from Avril
Lavigne’s Girlfriend / did you forget / it was your
karaoke special / when you were nine / and no one
would listen / and you sweat from daydreams /
where you identified / as answers from an online
quiz / about what kind / of lover / he was / about
how so! his touch / felt, shoved in a closet (always
a closet) / for ten minutes in heaven / if it meant
the gossip would be true
ROCK
they didn’t know you / when they wrote / a Sticky
Drama page / about you / your voice / young and
impressionable / wrung German / in the worst /
American accent / you sang / Tokio Hotel songs /
unabashedly / a new identity / again and again /
and again / the saddest lyrics / clung to you / and
they knew / spamming your ask.fm / with vague
warnings / shaking you with shame / until you were
famous / for “most death threats” collected / in 7th
grade
ALTERNATIVE
when the scene kids / poached outlet malls /
dressed like Bratz dolls / with almond catgirl eyes
/ malted skin / they teased their hair / in bathroom
stalls / where you shook / a Magic 8-Ball / and
asked if you were like them / the answer stuck / in
grim blue / no matter how many times / it loosened
/ but you knew you weren’t / with a cowlick / of
burnt straight / o”-brand Paramore / orange fringe
/ and the way / their glares were curses / when you
walked in / musky Hot Topic / its shifting shadows /
sifting through you
tommy wyatt blake (he/they) lives with his partner and fiendishly goofy cats. he is the author of DITCHLAPSE / [REALLY AFRAID] (Querencia Press); So, Who’s Courage? (Bullshit Lit.); NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL HORROR! (Gutslut Press); and other titles. they are currently sifting through digital archives and graveyards and writing about their residual hauntings.
L.M. Cole is a poet and artist residing in North Carolina. She is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Bulb Culture Collective whose writing and art have been published with The Pinch Journal, The McNeese Review, Five South, The Dodge, and many other excellent journals and magazines. She can be found on Twitter @_scoops__ and more of her work can be found at linktr.ee/lmcole
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