America the Beautiful - original painting, Jillian Brall

Out Of This World

Stop whatever you’re doing and come inside.
Skeletal structure has no use in a weightless environment.
There are some writers who don’t seem to have any necessity to travel at all.
It’s all inside.

Postcards saying Greetings from the U.S. of A! never feature photographs of winkled faces.
I pointed this out to you and then said something about plastic surgery.
Then a couple minutes later inside a bookstore
a girl walked in and said something about plastic surgery.
I pointed this out to you and you sang Synnchronicccityyyy.

Over someone’s shoulder I read, “Should have been the happiest”.
A couple minutes later over the same shoulder I read, “Democracy”.
But I knew the real ending to the sentence was “girl”.

Someone added a Hitler mustache to the graffiti monster on my block.
The character in the violent game said, “I’ve never seen it so quiet”.
The kid said, “Yo yo yo turn it up.
This is the best part.”
This is the part you recognized from a world away.

Author Biography:

Jillian Brall is a writer, musician and visual artist living in Brooklyn, NY. She co-edits the journal Lyre Lyre.