two poems

by Weston Morrow

My Good Friend Jesus Gives the Best Advice My good friend Jesus is always telling me it’s better to die alone than live in a toxic relationship. I should know, he says, and it’s likely true. He knows everything it seems, at least, everything there is to know about me, all my neuroses. I had a lover like that once, he tells me, as we sit beneath a fig tree, all these cocks crowing catcalls at him and me but mostly him I think. He is beautiful I think and unassuming somehow and though it makes me bad probably, it makes me happy to think even he has been locked in codependent relationships in the past, although a love triangle’s far more exciting than anything wrong with me, but there I go again, envying. You’ve got to divorce yourself from the catalyst of your anguish, he says, but this sounds like psychobabble I tell him, so he tries again and says, If your man offends, cut him off— and this I think is the kind of good advice I need, and I tell him this and kiss him on each cheek as he kisses me and I remind him we’ve got men’s league later and he’s on the mound and he winks and says he wouldn’t miss it for the world.   Pareidolia It’s like how everything seems to be going fine and then you’re walking by and you see a person who reminds you of a person and it all goes to shit again— like how the hot dog vendor calls out your name but it’s not your name it’s someone else with your name and your hot dog— it’s like finding the milk carton kid on Tinder and having a nice conversation and asking him to dinner and he shows up and looks nothing like his picture— it’s like what the hell that’s really rude to age or change or disappear without a trace to look me in the face and pretend to be something you’re not. I’ve got this problem where I see your face engraved in old potatoes and burnt on toast even though I know you will not be caught dead in any of those places.

Weston Morrow is a poet, freelance writer, and graduate student of English literature at Central Washington University. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in After the Pause, Boston Accent Lit, Riggwelter, and elsewhere. He can be found on Twitter @WMorrow.

Artwork by: Daniel Ignacio
Daniel Ignacio is a digital artist from Toronto. He creates surreal landscapes and painterly environments. Daniel’s artistic style and themes are heavily influenced by science fiction, fantasy, minimalism, urbanism, and some aspects of the Impressionist style.
Links
Website: dkaism.art Twitter: @dkaism Instagram: @dkaism