Halloween
Bradley Trumpfheller
waste of a year you’re the worst looking boy I’ve ever seen I said
in the voice of a mirror which was fakeglass and bad fathers
look this is the last night of the harvest
therefore I can ramshackle besides
or wear whatever I want I’ll keep
a week’s worth of monday
milk money in a jar and mirror it’s your face
that suckergut socks and looks like a pumpkin
gone soilrot on the stoop
mirror I’m waiting for you
to shatter when I shroud myself in lace
in orchid lobes practice my duck walk
my clammerheel run away you waste of a boy
besides I’m barely a boy I’m one half miracle
the other half is the sky you see we’re both stupid and full of light
so if this wallpaper doesn’t hurry up and damask
I’ll do it myself with mascara after all I’m made up
I’m impossible I’m more myth than the bullet
that did homecoming or the knuckle that summered
in the parking lot mirror
zip me up mirror drag me into this dress
this night I’m too old for
else I’ll swallow a bucket of jewelry
and spend the night tricking
boys with this hand me down lack
of a smooth fit mirror tonight I’ll let it fiction
I’ll open my begmouth & eat every bullet
like a pillowful of candied razors
waste of a prom year besides I’ll be the prettiest boy
they’ve ever seen bleed
Brad Trumpfheller is an undergraduate student at Emerson College. Their poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from Muzzle, Puerto del Sol, Indiana Review, West Branch, and elsewhere. Born in Japan, they are the internship director for Winter Tangerine.