I use my favorite songs as ringtones because I don't plan on answering... telemarketers don't keep me company Spam Likely is my only contact I grew up with Green Stamps but my friend had the Green Book My family isn't Jewish yet my Grandparents spoke Yiddish at home Esperanto was supposed to be the language of the future Ebonics at school Spanglish on the streets Pinyin at the shops It is too easy to allow a title to become a definition and a definition be exclusive My Grandparents lived through the Great Depression and World War 2 Fascism My parents lived through the Korean conflict, Vietnam war, and the Cold War Communism I lived through the trickle-down economic recession, the dot-com bubble bursting, and housing market crash Capitalism Ebola, Avian Flu, and a reemergence of the Bubonic Plague, AIDS, and COVID-19 pandemic Anti-Vax my house is painted green and blue to disappear into the lawn there is no doorbell only a camera to watch you a locked obelisk door in a field I have withdrawn
BIO: Yrik-Max Valentonis’s poetry collection Cranium Theatre and novella 120 Days of Gomorrah are available from Alien Buddha Press. He has work in several anthologies including Heat the Grease We’re Frying Up Some Poetry from Gnashing Teeth Press. His photo essay about writing an erasure poem is available on their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl5NLz8FIEw
