I Want a Brand-New Precedent: 
Elizabeth Shorkey

Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Poetry

                    [After Zoe Leonard]

 

I want a man who is kind for the sake of communism, I want the

neighbor’s dog to pee in rain gutters and storm drains, I want the New

York Times editor to turn into falcon-goat hybrid, I want Jesus to hang

himself from a Seven-11 steeple, I want Corporate to plow a WWI field

and eat the trigger-finger bones they find, I want Leonardo Dicaprio on the

freaking door and Rose in the freaking ocean, I want someone that lies for

fun to make more money than Leo, I want the reincarnation of a woman

who died on the toilet to become Emperor of Italy and Russia respectively,

I want cabinets that bite when you close them, I want all rats to drive

Fords and own auto shops, I want to flick Hawaii into the Mediterranean, I

want it to rain white wine vinegar in the Sahara, I want camels to develop

udders on their humps, I want all toast in the world to be burnt forever, I

want to invert all buildings and baby carriages, I want mermaids with

shark fins and CrossFit biceps to take over publishing for Us Weekly, I

want pop to be stale and all musical notes to fall flat, I want water to be

paint and paint to be oil and oil to be lit on fire and spread around, I want

Nike sneakers for the stubby tails of unfortunate cats, I want every

lightbulb in the world to glow pink and then explode, I want rivers that run

up mountains, I want bananas that are white and purple and not manmade,

I want Allah to indoctrinate emperor penguins, I want joyful neo-Nazis to run

children’s hospitals, I want something to surprise me. 

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