Nights Out
Jessica Abughattas
I hate alcohol please don’t give me any it’s only good
for falling asleep on my arm & waking with the blood
drained from my fist a Chicago girl by way of Philly
tells me need twice as many friends in LA for once
a week plans we have to choose an outfit for the post
office we have to lie awake at 4:45am picking mascara
off our eyelids stomach full of diner fries
reliving conversations from vinyl booths alcohol
alcohol alcohol alcohol we have to be pleasant
and humble despite being more focused and creative
we almost never get to direct then we’re invited
to paint and sip yoga with goats or worst of all
your comedy show I’ll stay home and drink
some water thank you chase my cat around the yard
I hate bitchy little white wine salmon dinners
and writing poems at 5am I’m outgrowing my reality
and dehydrated and my polyamorous friend says
jealousy isn’t a reflection of love!!!! I love addicts
and nymphs people who take their coffee cold
people without God I live in constant fear
the past will accost me in public / I feel like a
soggy sockeye trying to be charming in a vinyl booth.
Jessica Abughattas is the author of an award-winning collection of poetry, Strip (University of Arkansas, 2020). Her poems appear or are forthcoming in POETRY, Guernica, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Yale Review, and elsewhere.