The Museum of Dead Presidents

By Roxanna Bennett

I am trending in my head ending where I began.
#throwbacktime Sci-fi saved me from the thousand deaths
of childhood. #SFF Bradbury in the out

field, #somethingwicked last in line, ducked under
to go unnoticed. #nerd4life It’s just that I’ve always hated
the stupid who rightly hate me

back. I wrote plays in my off-hours and all hours were off
when my mother drank #alanonteens #epicparentfail
and she did, don’t fall for that

Christian bullshit. #atheist4evah GET READY FOR
YOUR DAILY CRY This is my unmarked face
she smacked just once preferring the back of my half

-brother. #childabuse Other lies: A’s can always be A pluses.
YOU WON’T BELIEVE HOW UPWORTHY
WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE #notworthy
Should be if you

were better #OCD #morphine I learned to starve
#fatshame and now the hashtag for anorexia #ED
is everyone’s shitty upbringing. #throwbacktime

#Scarborough still 15 SIGNS YOU GREW UP
IN TORONTO IN THE 80’s strip malls, #FF
@therealrealTMZ smokestacks, hydro fields littered with torn

porn. #fuckyourausterity It was the 80’s, you
wouldn’t believe the money. #teenagewasteland
Kids with feathered hair #throwbackthursdays dry-

humping under transmission towers between bottle tokes.
#oldstonersneverdie I learned to knee boys in their balls
if we got caught at kissing

tag. #rape #rapeculture #rape In the game I play,
GAMER CONFESSIONS rabbit hole is where my Sim
goes to work and I can’t follow #femalegamer

Each day everyone I know IRL falls down rabbit holes.
#TGIF I lurk measure edge of the bed. Place #throwbacktime
is another cage like body.

#ablebodiedallies I track the outrage, #hollaback
heroin jokes, baseball banter #FF @auditorydamage
best feminist dude we know. I don’t meet.

#shut-in Better than voices:140 character chains.
All those serious heterosexual writing men. Weather
takes place other. #neverforget #rainLA

THE BEST WAY TO COMMUTE IN A
BLIZZARD #polarvertex Covet duffle coats
of yoga girls swaddled in science’s best guess
against the elements. On

the subway a lawyer unbuckles his briefs,
sweats a sheaf of Xeroxes, low-res pics of our
famous #mayor #Topoli the answer to
comedy prayers.

Shame dark sweet keeps us gleed to the
teat, on transit not tweeting is torture. Lo-fi filter
#needcoffee morning light shunting us from stop

to stop, that Instagram glow. #mindthegap
In #Futurama they kept the cartoon heads
of dead presidents alive in jars, coin-face
museum. I wasn’t

always ugly but four-eyed. I wear contact
lenses now, HERE’S WHY YOU NEED
TO WATCH I read the magazines.@Bustle
@Hairpin @XOjane @Clutch @Bust

@Jezebel @Xovain IT REALLY HAPPENED
TO ME #linkbait Pretty #hateclick machine.
#onceuponatime In the 80$$$ you wouldn’t believe
all that money

not mine but witness to. Record collecting
a fetish. You kids wreck the precious
vinyl, #scratchbattle who knew the worth
of the diamond in the

needle? I was cool once maybe but now
don’t know what the kids are saying. I can’t even.
#artisanalhipstermonoclesukeleles @urbandictionary
By

kids I mean the middle-aged. Show me your #selfie
please. I need reminders to love. Is there an app
for that? WHICH MAGIC MIKE
STRIPPER IS YOUR

SOULMATE? @OKCUPID @PlentyofFish #bitch
Hold my hand in this message and this one and this.
That’s you #NSFW in a state of unguarded undress.

HOW PORNHUB GAVE THE INTERWEBZ
(us) THE BEST BIRTHDAY GIFT EVER
Bitcoins buy you anything: guns, drugs, kids.
#sorrynotsorry Killswitch laws

leave you holding useless bricks. You know the
#throwbacktime stuff they made houses from?
You might remember the blinking box we
used to live

inside.THE NUMBER ONE TRICK TO MAKING IT
ONTO THE DEATH LIST Lost art of celebrity
tombstones, Pandora finally political, slams another
alleged

peddler for revenge. Autocorrect changes
it to ducking when I’ve never ducked a punch
ever though I’ve sucked and been a sucker.
Motherducker

CAN CATS CURE ALL THE SADS?
Even the ones trepanning can’t fix?
#skinnybitch From a bitch who was formerly
skinny: I was once that thin but was

never that rich. We had to count pennies
#cents #FML Where is I don’t go. Would be
just that. #throwbacktime there was no–>this
is a sentence

I am sick. #diagnosis #defined #disabled
The GP file on me is thick. It is trending
in my feed. I never needed to be
seen. #throwbacktime Lies

are all I’ve fed. I am ending
I am ending in this bed. 7 SIMPLE TIPS FOR
A SUCCESSFUL KICKSTARTER
I thumb typed this on my iPhone
while waiting

for you to remember me. Friday night
Twitter drunk without you. Link
from a stranger #BFFF to Youtube,
something larger. #solonesomeIcoulddie

Roxanna BennettROXANNA BENNETT dropped out of art school because it’s dumb. She had a baby while single, houseless and on welfare because Reasons. A 13 time graduate of group therapy and the recipient of long-term disability insurance, her work has appeared in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy worksheets, trauma journals and uncomfortable tear-filled silences. She studied Acting Like Hallucinations Are NBD, Hiding Your Eating Disorder, Places You Can Cut Yourself That No One Will Notice, and Screaming on the Inside. Look for her upcoming work in Leaving the House Without Showering for More Than Three Consecutive Days in a Row.

 

 

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