portion of the artwork for Nicholas Alti's poetry

pretty useless wishes
Nicholas Alti

praise me for I am the most high
& the least holy, you said turn this seed

into a flooded mountain
I heard only
nobody believes in you I heard only

from how you taste your lover
it’s clear you fear your father


for I am swine incarnate
cast me your finest pearls

essentially my life is going like a horde of pigs shitting
don’t ask me about me I don’t want to turn fecal this discourse

ask me about Asmodeus or manipulating serotonin
I’ll tell you all about demonic possession & self-destruction

what about me let’s talk about me
oh ha umm nope nothing new with me is it humid in here or what?

I’m disabled & sad & devoid of spirit
but I’m one glam sickly man have you seen my eyelashes lately

imagine how I’d look in fish scales or duct tape
even in a memory foam sarcophagus

what’s the god for being high on vanity & alienation & also pharmaceuticals
a vogue contemporary inland lake sort of spirituality

don’t listen to me I’ve been punch drunk lightning bug
white dog ghost mountain hopeless exorcist stoned gone

don’t listen to me I’m blowing myself wide open always
don’t listen to me I’m dressed in pond fish & rotting on the concrete

listen to me immediately
listen to me listen to my gaping nebulous face

seriously you should hear this convex litany
so listen close to my concave obsecration:

I have something forgettable I could tell you
I have so many useless wishes


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FRiGG: A Magazine of Fiction and Poetry | Issue 55 | Spring/Summer 2020