The Brooklyn Rail

MAY 2019

All Issues
MAY 2019 Issue
Poetry

%NSFW


%NSFW
in the supermarket
                                                    full of mistakes
my dream husband motions
                                                    muddy socks
over his navel
i gave my future to him last night


+/-
a bad relationship is a long education in nothing


˜+˜+˜+˜
obsessions are my
obsessions are
shattered glass reflections
muses whose names I
say into the ear of
a wound / a day
a wound / a day


Xo$
fungus fungus fungus
vacancy vacancy vacancy
sex sex sex
naranja naranja naranja
tweet tweet


180°
i barked
& barked
at squish
in flat zones
only to envy
the philosopher
who slashes tires
in order to win
the sports car


:(((((((((
2 out of 3 dates say I’m ugly


‘#’
Love does a zombie no good.
Love does a zombie no good.
Love does a zombie no good on TV.


work song
coyotes show kindness
eating my sour features
the
smooth
lying
olives
when i walk


neighborhood abyss
devils ask for wax, never my thorns


x.O


    i pose w/ a taurus mask in the commuter nerf
                 pure & carnal measures
        trifectas wither bouquets
area slushes


v/exes
1 calls me useless
2 deposits us on the side of the freeway
3’s smothered in spicy
4 makes the moon change colors


paleta palio
the tropical tavern serves TNT to tourists
3k for the young                   
immortality is granted to a broken torso
once again
hens scratch the plaza, searching for weapons
trees are trusted w/ simple miseries                
among other exaggerations                                                   
horses shovel realities of the tongue


eeks

a cat-paw is
glib
2 colors minimum
as retractable as NASA


uselessness

decorates the static
changes hands
resembles us
while approximating something
everything runs against


teenagers

in the wash
we twisted
out of pain
what we held
looked sick
among rumors


skank roar
love feels warm even as it goes cold



everybody in general

let’s kiss
Frank as in Frankenstein

let’s kiss
snakes with a bad teeth

let’s kiss
exes playing up the doom

let’s kiss
smog a wild crown

let’s kiss
vomited secrets

let’s kiss
Lucifer’s screams

let’s kiss
youth drilled anew

even as it’s impossible to see each other
let’s kiss

Contributor

Joshua Escobar

Joshua Escobar a.k.a. DJ Ashtrae is the author of Caljforkya Voltage (No, Dear/Small Anchor Press) and XXOX FM (DoubleCross Press). He publishes the all-ages zine Orange Mercury. Bareback Nightfall, his first full-length collection, is forthcoming in 2020 from Noemi Press and Letras Latinas. A CantoMundo fellow, he lives with dj lil piñata in southern California. He will be reading at the Poetry Project with Jerika Marchan on May 17.

close

The Brooklyn Rail

MAY 2019

All Issues