fuck this sweet wine. these deviled eggs.
another plane ride. this old black suit. the
spotless carpet at the boca raton funeral parlor.
my best shoes tracking gravesite mud through
the car. these ugly prayers. these mad lib
eulogies slinking through the brisk autumn air
until everything smells like formaldehyde. such
a stunning season. such a warm color palette
of dying. fuck the space
between funerals. that dry shivah. that
famished wake. the endless purgatory of an
unreturned phone call. how my last words to
her were the greeting to a voicemail she never
left. fuck she’s in a better place now. the ennui
of heaven, a restless minion of angels, bored of
the elderly, welcoming the young. my
childhood friend. my senior year crush. fuck
this bulldozer sniffing out another new grave
while we chant a prayer i want so badly to
unlearn.
Header photograph © Karyna Aslanova.
Rota is a poet and public interest lawyer living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is a multiple-time Chicago-venue Grand Slam Champion and the winner of the 2019 Paragraph Press Chapbook Competition. His work has been featured by Button Poetry, Entropy! The Portland Review (forthcoming), and elsewhere. By day, he supervises law students who provide free legal services to veterans. You can’t miss him. He’s the tallest Jew for miles.