at the SpongeBob pop-up bar
with a group I called my best friends:
Irony poisoning in full effect
or my misplaced sense of doom—
something or other
you’d detect in a blood draw
I swallowed a marijuana edible
I drank a cartoon-inspired cocktail
I ordered a dark lager & passed it off
to some guy who’d drink anything
for the memory loss
I’m never as tough
as I’d put my money on
my palate’s unrefined
& I’d make good jailbait
if I didn’t look my age
I picked “Bring Me to Life”
a song once deployed in earnest
to autoplay on my Neopets webpage
screaming Wake me up inside
to a slowly draining bar
Wake me up inside
I can’t wake up
& the DJ called me Rammstein
& I laughed to show I got it
& it was all caught on video
which is what keeps me up at night
so it’d be more appropriate to sing
Put me to sleep
Put me to sleep
I’d rather risk the dream
tonight
***
Selena Cotte is a poet, journalist & shapeshifter living in Chicago by way of Orlando. Her poems are published or forthcoming in journals such as HAD, Peach Mag, Taco Bell Quarterly & others. She is also a reader for Twin Pies Literary, and can be found online @selenacotte.
***
image: Jesse Hilson
Rejection Letters 