“Dear Unfeeling Martinis,” a Poem by JoAnna Novak

From the Collection “Domestirexia”

Bless you,
stomach pump.

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Bless you,
puce hole.

Bless you,
balcony

and cool
air that finds me

éthylique
on the floor

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pushing in
the broken door.

I open it
and hate it

with equal
slosh.

Just wetting the
cork,

bless it.
Shorn

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plum buds
pruned

from Thai basil
in Italian terracotta.

I do miss
traveling

with my poison
pen, loving

this cocktail,
lying about

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would-be
devils, demons-

trating my vile
behaviors, all

excessed
and how

feckless
I used to

behave
bowing

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boiling,
baring

my voluptuous
shoulders.

__________________________________

From Domestirexia by JoAnna Novak. Copyright © 2024. Available from Soft Skull Press. “Dear Unfeeling Martinis” was previously published in Conjunctions.

JoAnna Novak

JoAnna Novak

JoAnna Novak's memoir Contradiction Days was published by Catapult in July 2023. Her short story collection Meaningful Work won the Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Contest and was published by FC2. She is the author of the novel I Must Have You and three books of poetry: New Life; Abeyance, North America; and Noirmania. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, the New York Times, The Atlantic, and other publications.