Rachael Lee Nelson is a New York City based writer and painter. Her work has been published in Shabby Doll House and Stufft.
2 poems
by Rachael Lee Nelson
ROMANCE
i’m wondering what
color wine you like
to drink and which wings
songs make you cry
i’m carrying around cake
in a cardboard box
alone in my apartment
i am trying on
all of my underwear
i am climbing the ladder
to my roof in the rain
to text you photos of the fog
i’m walking around the city
feeling like a prime number
like something shiny and unashamed
(have you always been the kind of person
who arrives with soup on a snow day)
We are having A Romance you tell me
While i’m slurping a pina colada
And then its shall we dance
Let us dance
Lettuce dance
Is she romaine or baby gem tonight
With candy at that place with the lights
In new york city
I like exactly 5 restaurants
And 12 people and that’s why
i can never leave!
The bartender can tell we are cool,
Right? So we leave him half of all our money and go
To the next place and for all the kisses
Our cheeks can fit we empty the rest of our pockets
It goes around, we catch it when it comes
I never have gone to bed hungry
You let me pick what side i want
And flash! It’s another morning
SUNSHOWER
i grew up without a word
for when the sun is shining
when it rains and i think it’s better
for there to still be things
in nature with no names
that way they get to just
remain phenomena
it’s raining when the sun is shining and we
are all living in abundance!
if i order fries
will you eat some?
if i refer to myself as a twenty-something
three weeks before my thirtieth birthday
will you indulge me?
hey, it’s always been a wild year
no one is ever not having
an insane time
things are constantly catching
on fire and being put out
my friends are the kind of people
who come to the hospital with bags of candy
and invite you to pool parties
and trade you dresses in the bathroom
and let you take a nap in the middle of the day
even if you are in paris, france
i do not believe
i have ever in my life said
“i think one bottle of champagne
will be enough”
in order to weep
in order to lick your wounds
and those of your clique
you gotta stay hydrated
one day i couldn’t walk a mile
and another i was on top of a mountain!
in montana!
there are reasons to keep yourself alive:
like your parents
and seeing animals in the wild
and bob seger on the radio
and dinner
in chinese 8 is the luckiest number
and looks like a mountain
well i was born in 88
which is double the luck
and two mountains
so when you climb one you
have another just to look at
tell me what’s better
than a t shirt and a toothbrush
from the best looking person
i have ever seen!
in the summer at four
in the morning
three weeks before my
thirtieth birthday
the funniest joke i know about
is when one person drinks water
and the other screams its poison!
and the first person spits it all out
what happens to one of us
happens to all of us
mushrooms have underground
networks in the forest that
keep everything alive
which is why i’ll always watch
your bag for you when you get up
to use the bathroom
at the coffee shop or pick you up
from the airport in a convertible
or meet all your coworkers at an
office sponsored happy hour or
rescue you from drowning or
pass you a napkin or
remember your food allergies or
help you move in the summer
even when you own a stupid amount
of books that you are not
going to read or
party hard on your birthday or
kiss you on the mouth
forever!
there is just so much stuff!
humans are wrapping up but
i’m learning about things
everyday
impossibly, in the final act
there are still new pop songs
and some of them are
really good
we are living in abundance
and it is phenomenal!