"Blend In" by CL Bledsoe
1
Diamond tipped carelessness cuts glass
making it hard to see through without seeing two
images one thing I swore I’d never tell her was that I never loved
anyone When life gets hard buy a baseball cap a pair
of khakis tennis shoes that cost more than any book you’ve ever read
blend in like whipped egg. Buy a truck or an SUV park it at
precisely the most obstructive point in any parking lot
then stand slightly away from it point back at it and say
look at that SUV (or truck) parked
at precisely the most obstructive
point in the parking lot
I bet the guy who drives it
has a huge penis
Either that or start carrying an axe carve your name
into the paint jobs of decadence You’ve either got to give it up
right away or earn your soul back through strenuous ongoing
complaining Heard a noise
in the streets of celebration Thought it might be Jesus
coming back but it was just the McRib That I can afford
2
Children throw rocks into the calm center of my solitude
this is a nice way of saying the world wouldn’t be
so bad if it weren’t for all the billboards the smell of rotten meat
lingering in the parking lot of the doctor’s office the need
to piss in alleyways (you can deny it’s you
but someone is doing it) the warm murmur of the herd
letting me know no one in this room would find anything
I care about remotely interesting This is the sort of thing
sets us buying soiled undies online You must be ever vigilant
you don’t let your friends know they’ve become
everything you hate
3
Smug smile like it was his idea the sun shone today that’s fine but
take
responsibility for everything else
spilled coffee on the crotch of exuberance growing cold leaking through
to stain her strap-on
Whose idea was it to make life so easy
to avoid
Son of a bitch pulled out in front of me on my way
to the ice cream place
then sped up
so I couldn’t complain
without feeling a little silly
CL Bledsoe
CL Bledsoe has published work in Eyeshot, Word Riot, Opium, Thieves
Jargon,
The Cimarron Review, Clackamas, and Hobart Pulp, among other places. He
currently attends the MFA program at Hollins University with his fiancee.
He is an
editor for Ghoti Magazine www.ghotimag.com.
"Blend In" originally appeared in Ithuriel's
Spear.
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