Nicole Connolly
They Are Shooting the New Season of American Horror Story in the Busiest Intersection
of the city where I live. So it needs to be winter
this June—Patches of shipped ice are melting
away with the people I love who can no longer
afford to be here. A clipboarded woman halts us
with her hand; beyond her, a flock of shipped
townspeople are being taught how to stroll,
having the twist of their hips & shoulders redirected.
We are trying to get back to where we’ve always
been; she says, go now—hurry—you might
just make it.
A butchery stands
where the haircutting school used to be. You joke,
hipsters have ruined the butchers. Now that people
pay extra for what the poor kids used to need,
nothing left will stay within our reach. We find out
later that the butchery is as much set dressing
as the winter, the townspeople, the stroll.
The men have already been moving here
with their clubs, ones named golf & billy.
Inside the butchery, we imagine there will be
a floor of bloodsplatter—just nothing to eat.
of the city where I live. So it needs to be winter
this June—Patches of shipped ice are melting
away with the people I love who can no longer
afford to be here. A clipboarded woman halts us
with her hand; beyond her, a flock of shipped
townspeople are being taught how to stroll,
having the twist of their hips & shoulders redirected.
We are trying to get back to where we’ve always
been; she says, go now—hurry—you might
just make it.
A butchery stands
where the haircutting school used to be. You joke,
hipsters have ruined the butchers. Now that people
pay extra for what the poor kids used to need,
nothing left will stay within our reach. We find out
later that the butchery is as much set dressing
as the winter, the townspeople, the stroll.
The men have already been moving here
with their clubs, ones named golf & billy.
Inside the butchery, we imagine there will be
a floor of bloodsplatter—just nothing to eat.
Nicole Connolly lives and works in Orange County, CA, which she promises is mostly unlike what you see on TV. She received her MFA from Bowling Green State University, and her work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in such journals as Assaracus, Pithead Chapel, Flyway, and Big Lucks. She currently serves as Managing Editor for the poetry-centric Black Napkin Press.