America
“When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?”-Allen Ginsberg
America I have exhausted my good looks
at a dance studio in Eagle Rock
America I am no longer eighteen
dreaming of defending the innocent
America your law school admission test
is too difficult for me
America I am on social security disability income
that won't buy me an ice cream cone
America I subsist on instant coffee
America I am not hirable
because nobody wants a schizo-affective
Even if anyone does
I have no driving privilege
to get to work
America the public transportation
in Los Angeles
is inefficient
America I hope no one stabs me from behind
like what happened to Iryna Zarutska
America bless her angelic soul
America I am nobody
and so nobody cares about
the flip of my skirt in the updraft
America I am no Marilyn Monroe
© Jackie Chou
Jackie Chou (she/her) is a writer from Southern California who has two collections of poetry, The Sorceress and Finding My Heart in Love and Loss, published by cyberwit. Her poem "Formosa" was a finalist in the Stephen A DiBiase Poetry Prize. She also has poems published in Synchronized Chaos, The Ekphrastic Review, Panoply Zine, Alien Buddha Zine, and Spillwords.
