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Shangri-La

On honeymoon
At the Mall of America

Tropical paradise
Twin City treasure

Pink in the rearview
Girlfriend experience

Dizzy at the fragrance bar
Addicted to possibility

Drunk at Margaritaville
Sugar gone sour

Playful faux spat
Angry by surprise

Clenched in pocket
Walking fist-first

Kiss and make-up
At Victoria’s Secret

Watch children swing
From art installations

Tourists ask us
If we want a picture

No thank you, we say
No thank you

Sonja says

I’m a creative person
I’m an artist

Drunk in the limo, nipples
hard beneath cashmere

When’s the last time
you had sex?

Do you smell that feral Chanel smell?

Do you watch Sonja’s streaky legs
chopsticks on Jimmy Choos?

I partied with John-John
and Madonna

Fat pearly tear clinging
to an under-filled eye

I’m an artist
Sonja says

I raise millions
of dollars for artists

Daddy God says

Five bites of everything
on the plate
type of girl

I dream my body is
a wound the world sucks on

A hundred mouths chewing
licorice sounds
chops water

I take a fork to my belly
children are starving
somewhere

Google body fluids cleansing?

Waste not my lullaby
Want not my bounty

Google how long
does it take
to flush a wound?

Rock bottom @ McDonald’s

yellow sign screams
SALADS ARE BACK

S’ lurches drunkenly
‘K’ looks tired

browsing Alcoholic Anonymous mantras
bookmarked in my phone

Easy Does It
Just For Today

It works if
you work it

     ,and so on.

FIND YOUR SERENITY
SALADS ARE BACK


I am humming with gratitude and fresh vomit
     perceiving a better world

Claire Rychlewski

Twitter: @claireyski
IG: @claireyski

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