Wet sleeve

she only watches census man porn

she cooks porridge that tastes like xerox paper

she hitchhikes to the post office to see if she’s “still got it”

she puts on temporary tattoos before teaching at the women’s prison

her ringtone is the sneeze of a vole

her high school mascot was the principal’s son

she goes to open houses with dried blood on her forehead

every bath she steps into turns lukewarm

she can run a 45 minute mile

she buys out entire tag sales and reassembles them in the forest

when she goes on dates her date can never see her

when she sends postcards they go back in time  

she has new car smell but no car

The Death Olympics

we feasted during the pandemic
I got high and dipped strawberries in Nutella on my bed
I still wrote in my diary about you

along the deserted airfield 
I walked by myself in my mask
like the last shot of a movie

I looked away when people passed
listening to Chopin play from his crypt in the sky

I guessed the new high score 
whenever I checked the death map with the red dots

squirrels ran into black holes in trees
the graveyard filled with people 

we played stunted online versions of the games we used to play together
we pridefully and uselessly tidied our rooms 
watching Netflix while people died

Prince fucking in quarantine

the cursor slants when I think of it

they wear silk or nothing
glitter clogs the hot tub

their minds expand on endless carpet 
3 o’clock becomes 4

does skin feel warmer now?
skin feels warmer 

they met a few months ago in another world 
now their phones are dead in a drawer

they take drugs that make his mansion feel like a cold mistake
drugs that make them feel 19 in summer 

every day their souls drip from their bodies
each orgasm sends them through a time-machine
or maybe it’s a carwash

their neighbors are dying of boredom
but they thrive like deep sea creatures in the dark

Rachel B. Glaser is the author of the story collection Pee On Water, the novel Paulina & Fran, and the poetry books MOODS and HAIRDO. She teaches in the low-residency Mountainview MFA program and lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.