“Love Poem for Diet Coke” & “I Just Wanna Go Real Hard” by Sophie Furlong Tighe


Abstract painting unpick, green, yellow and purple with black outlines of skulls overlaid, by Laura Larson

Love Poem for Diet Coke

Fine, you got me, I’ll always get a Diet Coke. I like the sound of it, the teeth clicking steel robots
French kissing when the can opens. I like how it goes through me without sticking, still polluting. I
like that they had to make a whole other drink for men because they wouldn’t be caught dead with
that silver, that red, that cursive font bitch drink. I like the girls who have it every day, like fuck my
teeth, fuck my dentist, I know it's twisting my organs, I just like the fucking taste, okay? I like the
ones who call it “Doke,” like it’s so essential you obviously know what they mean, and shut up you
do. I like that it’s the most human drink in the world. Like lab rat grownups worked for years to
make a taste that is only like itself.
So when you ask me what Doke even tastes like, all I can tell you is half a Cuba Libre. Or,
August. Or, me and Jack sipping our boy/girl no-cal drinks in the library. Or, asking him if he
thinks Coke Zero makes him a hard man. Honestly, I drink it so much it doesn’t have a flavour
anymore. Honestly, I drink it so much it’s not a lie to say it tastes
     just like me.

I Just Wanna Go Real Hard

YES, I WOULD EXCHANGE MY FIRST BORN CHILD TO FEEL “let
me hear you say Hey Miss Carter” IN THE CLUB.  YES I WILL
DROP MY CIGARETTE AND PUSH THROUGH THE CROWD
TETHERED ONLY TO THE HAND OF A BOY I HAVE JUST MET.
YES, I WANT SOMETHING BAD TO HAPPEN IN A BATHROOM.
YES, I PROMISE TO REMEMBER THIS TIME. YES, I WILL
SCREAM, YES I WILL SCALD. YES YES YES I WILL BURN
INTELLECTUALISM ON THE ALTAR OF THE CHEAPLIST, DOUSE
MYSELF IN AN EIGHT EURO GIN AND TONIC, AND LIVE AS
CLOSE TO DEATH AS WE CAN GET.           I’VE NEVER
WANTED TO BE ANYTHING BUT MYSELF MOVING. GOD,
PLEASE. LET ME CHEAT LET ME CRY LET ME HURT LET ME
DO EVERYTHING I DO NOW BUT ON A FLASHING FLOOR.

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Sophie Furlong Tighe is a writer from Dublin. They’re the editor of Icarus Magazine, Ireland’s longest running literary and arts publication. They have work published or forthcoming in Sonder, Variant Lit, and YES Poetry among others. They tweet @furtiso.

Laura Larson is a musician and artist in Minneapolis, MN. She plays in the bands Scrunchies and Kitten Forever. You can find her at @badrecital.