Ruby is a Psychology major attending the University at Buffalo. She is from Shrub Oak, New York (Shrub what?). She is the 2015 winner of the Joyce Carol Oates fiction prize and her eye twitches for six consecutive months, biannually.

1 poem by Ruby Anderson

Cajun Mix

I'm curled up with Bukowski, reading
If you can't love each other’s assholes…
Today the sky weeps those quiet sobs with no clear dusk or dawn, just drops and a constant wind
It’s september and all I've written is a sonnet about regret
and falafel

The university goes on without you
The men with patchy beards still wear Bills caps
The ecological coffee, labeled with a green coqui, remains untouched
The two English luminaries are still grandiose and fat
The sunset still dips the Audubon in blood

With the right song I can almost forget that I’m
Driving to wegmans for the third time this week, on a Wednesday
Walking through the self-serve bar, then sushi, croissants, bratwurst and gouda,
until I remember the bulk nut option is gone

I’m better off, I think, it was wrong to steal cajun trail mix
And there were ingredients I didn’t like
Sesame sticks and dried corn,

Carbs of all species, and food

Life is not a tragedy anymore
I get on,

Sleep off the darker feelings or drink gin with the groceries still in the car
and only think of cajun mix
When the milk turns sour