in ceasing, or more folding,

i share a given name

w young Keanu Reeves

in the 1986 feature film Rivers Edge &

 

hiding in a university breakroom,

i tell Rachie tht i have not been eating well,

do not tell her why i have been wearing

long sleeves in the summertime,

& leave to wait for the 21

to take me down to 45th

 

in this regard,

i mirror young Keanu Reeves in

the 1986 feature film Rivers Edge,

as the passage of time

& the urgency of trust

is image-d as a decaying body

 

& young Keanu Reeves is posited

as both spectator & performer

of the act of rotting

the thrill of losing operations funding—

i will be unemployed come December

the mouse expires on the sidewalk, the flies converge

 

---

 

Faye Chevalier is a queer Philadelphia-based poet and essayist. Her debut chapbook, future.txt, is forthcoming from Empty Set Press in Fall 2018, and her work has been featured in The Wanderer, Peach Mag, Witch Craft Magazine, the Horse Less Review, the tiny, Bedfellows, and elsewhere. Find her on Twitter where she cries about cyborgs, vampires, and having a body at @bratcore.