ADULT GROCERIES 

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Emmaline is a New Orleanean, a dyke, and a hedonist. She’s also an auntie and will be eating a lot of tomato sandwiches this summer. Emmaline loves hanging out, high ceilings, dilemmas, and re-watching Oceans Eleven (2001). She knows that breaking the seal is settled science and is a Sagittarius. ︎

01.    At Night, In The Park


in formerly my park
currently yours
all the girls and the boys want me
so I swung
my arm around you
the one I let get me


I love you but I forgot
you love me, I believe you
doomed to kiss
a place like this: the park I packed
and unpacked all of you in and pinched
my face and burrowed somewhere in warm chest


but my eyes hurt sore
I feel the dumb sad behind my face
my tonsils swell and all
the air gets sucked out of the block
through my throat
which is so incredibly tight


I couldn’t take your fingers even
if you offered which you wouldn’t have
before but you changed you said
and I love to kiss the new you
and your face doesn’t have a freckle and
it makes me mad you never have to wash it


one day we will dance in the same room
I will clean your plate
you will smash little potatoes
I’ll slice tomatoes
you’ll lay awake you’ll pull in my face
I probably won’t force myself and I’ll probably wait



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02.    Mean to walk

I’ve just done my first

walk in a while

I remembered how to

walk and each step

was heavy and went

deeper than the last

and I felt no insecurity

in my change of gait

rooting up my really long

body and remembered that

spanish moss or tree

hair lives in

all the oaks and cypress

trees too and they just

live together and maybe

too slow for us to see

they braid their hair

and hold pinkies

it’s the prettiest thing I’ve

ever ever seen and

cypress knees make

brilliant silhouettes.


yeah I have seen very

very old rocks valleys

mountains and canyons

my apathy towards

how pretty they are doesn’t

need anyone’s analysis

or critique it’s just

they’re very old and there.

and it always has been.

what am I supposed to do

but salute it and be

grateful.

but I drink a lot of the

same water as the

magnolia in my mom’s

backyard and I can’t

wait until it blooms soon

you have to understand

how cypress and jasmine and

palms and oaks on water

are prettier. I didn’t say grander

did I I just said prettier,

which they are

because everything

where they are is

new and alive and wants

to live here as much as we do