No Soliciting
Deb Jannerson
we propel ourselves onto
graveled corners, cheap
pens pocketed in
hopes of the conscience of
strangers.
hours tick freeze blur with
the full-pocket hundreds
shaking heads, crinkling one dollar
bills at the odds of shooting stars or
lightning.
you’re doing good
they say, and
we marionette smiles at the
vain alchemy of turning morale into
gold.
the sun is a hugging
madman, volatile as the
blue shade of
the crowd’s politically pungent
sponge.
clocks scream our
sunset, our release into
two hundred steps to the
hybrid, a million times as
long.
you did good
i say, and
swoon with the heady rush of
activism, unless it’s just the
bullfrog tang in my lower
eyelids.
Deb Jannerson is a New Orleans-based poet and author of bildungsroman fiction, queer romance, and children’s horror and sci-fi. Her book of poetry, Rabbit Rabbit, will be published by Finishing Line Press in January 2016. She has stories in Best Lesbian Erotica 2015 and the forthcoming collection, My Gay New Orleans. Her New Adult novella, Further, was shortlisted for the 2015 William Faulkner – Wisdom Award. Her work has appeared in many magazines, including Bitch, Nola Live, and Women’s Review of Books. Deb Jannerson is online at deborahjannerson.com and facebook.com/DebJannersonWrites.
