Advice for the Newly Single
BY ELAINA ELLIS
Be a fierce dragon lonely queen,
Emma. Be a drunk barren
crowbar. Be a cocktail waitress heart-sewn
tease. Be a desert plant, Susie,
succulent. Need no water at hand.
Be an empty-fridge sale salad
scrimper. Be a sharp-tongued solo
chef. Anna: watch TV on a lonely moon
through the static of milky way
reception. Concentrate
on falling asleep. Slut,
Mona. Slut your book open.
Keep your legs open.
Do not write any name but
your name on those acre-wide
pages. Be hollow,
Sally. Keep canary-singing
in a thirsty well. Be a singing
flighty bird with open beak.
Don’t try a cushion,
Mary. Don’t swallow soft.
Chew only sticks: carrots, twigs.
Sit on your bones.
Sit on their bones.
Don’t try for dreams.
Don’t try for dollars,
Leah, this is a coin job
for you. Turn out the light.
Tear out your eyes.
Be a fierce dragon lonely queen,
Emma. Be a drunk barren
crowbar. Be a cocktail waitress heart-sewn
tease. Be a desert plant, Susie,
succulent. Need no water at hand.
Be an empty-fridge sale salad
scrimper. Be a sharp-tongued solo
chef. Anna: watch TV on a lonely moon
through the static of milky way
reception. Concentrate
on falling asleep. Slut,
Mona. Slut your book open.
Keep your legs open.
Do not write any name but
your name on those acre-wide
pages. Be hollow,
Sally. Keep canary-singing
in a thirsty well. Be a singing
flighty bird with open beak.
Don’t try a cushion,
Mary. Don’t swallow soft.
Chew only sticks: carrots, twigs.
Sit on your bones.
Sit on their bones.
Don’t try for dreams.
Don’t try for dollars,
Leah, this is a coin job
for you. Turn out the light.
Tear out your eyes.
ELAINA ELLIS quit her day job in January 2010 to make poetry the boss of her. She is a Creative Writing student at the Antioch University Los Angeles MFA program, a teacher at Bent Writing Institute in Seattle, and the founder of TumbleMe Productions. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Write About an Empty Birdcage, is forthcoming from Write Bloody Publishing. Elaina writes to worship, to recover, to seduce, to fight back, to play, to confess, and to make mess.
