I took a canal ride through hell everything was beer-battered & I was served a plastic straw just to sip the air I wouldn’t mind the heat but the place recently got a.c. all the automatons of sinners were replaced with believers I told them this is not what I signed up for can’t I try some hard labor or atone for my wrongs? but they said no, kick back & relax
Bathroom Stall Writer’s Block
In the middle of your shift in a bathroom stall sharpening your acrylic nails fastidiously with an emery board into very jagged points ready to scratch a controversial message in bubble letters into the door for everyone to read & think about while they pee or change their tampons to radically change the course of their lives to make them finally spit in the face of oppression or anyone who ever underestimated them, a burr forms in your imagination, the exact nature of your politics becomes hazy the catalyzing words don’t come to you like they used to so with your pointed fingernails you just scratch “$$$”
What Happens in the VIP Room?
In our gentleman’s club there’s a spiral escalator that glides to the sky when we ride it I stand three steps above so your eyes are level with my butt beyond the clouds, in the privacy of night, the escalator ends the moon is the madam of our house she schedules the tides and the fluctuations in my breast size with a silver key she unlocks our room 64 sq. feet of leather couch & baccarat arabesque crystal chandelier providing only a sliver of light enough for you to see me take my shoes off for you to see my toes and dip them in champagne suck off the champagne and write me a blank check
Sharada Tolton is a visual artist, writer, and dancer in Berkeley, California. She is the co-founder and editor of Muff, a print magazine of the new New Age. You can follow her on Instagram at @sirenshores and @muff_mag.
Miriam Rae-Silver is an artist currently painting in oils and making comics. Her work can be seen at miriamraesilver.com.
