the roses are red it is night
the street lights are reliable
your phone declares there
is a high chance of rain
it is a good night to call
anyone and say I’ve loved you
for a while now
but you know none of this
no windows to tell you you’ve already
missed the day for a long time now
you haven’t spoke outside of your needs
phone calls to doctors or three
when the cashier asks you
how many bear claws are in the bag
this is why dreams are harmful
Really, listen. how many time have your
teeth fell out yet you woke and ate
sugared flakes
for a long time i was awake
trying to become an american
telling myself it would be good
here if i was an american
over the phone you use to quiz me
what caused the civil war
human rights!
well yes, but no that’s not the answer they want
Sean Cho A. is the author of American Home (Autumn House 2021) winner of the Autumn House Press chapbook contest. His work can be future found or ignored in Copper Nickel, Pleiades, The Penn Review, The Massachusetts Review, Nashville Review, among others. He is currently an MFA candidate at the University of California Irvine, and will join the PhD program at the University of Cincinnati in the fall. Sean is the Associate Editor of THRUSH Poetry Journal. Find him @phlat_soda