WAY MORE IMPORTANT AND LEGITIMATE
THAN OUR RECENT ELECTION IS FAT BEAR WEEK
THE BEST PART OF VOTING FOR THE FATTEST BEAR
IS THAT ITS PROPERLY REPRESENTATIONAL
IMAGINE THE TRAVESTY OF A FAT BEAR
FIRST PAST THE POST SYSTEM
THERED BE RIOTING IN THE STREETS A
ROARING WAVE OF WET FUR I SUPPOSE THATS
WHAT I LOVE SO MUCH ABOUT BEARS
HABITUALLY THEYRE VERY DOCILE
BUT FUCK AROUND AND THEYLL
BURN A FUCKIN COP CAR TO ITS FRAME
OCCUPANT AND ALL
WE SHOULD ALL CULTIVATE SUCH A
CAPACITY FOR VIOLENCE RESPECTING
OF COURSE THE COINCIDINGLY LOW
PROCLIVITY THEREOF – VIOLENCE I MEAN
I THINK WEVE GOTTEN TOO SOFT
AND NOT SOFT IN THE GOOD WAY LIKE
HOW A BEARS FUR GLISTENS
AND SPARKLES AS HIS MOUTH OPENS
FOR YET ANOTHER SALMON IN HOPES
OF PULLING AHEAD OF HIS OPPONENT
ON FAT BEAR WEEK –
NOR SOFT LIKE THE THUMPABLE
FLANK OF A RESTING BEAR DIGESTING
HER SEVENTH MEAL UNKNOWINGLY
TROUNCING HER COMPETITION
ON FAT BEAR WEEK –
I MEAN SOFT IN THE WAY THAT
WE ARE DISTRACTIBLE EASILY PLIED
WITH TWITTER DRAMA
RUN ROUGHSHOD WITH ENNUI
OUR COATS GROW MATTED
OUR BELLIES THIN
IM JUST SAYING IF OUR DEMOCRACY
WAS PROPERLY PROPORTIONAL
THEN PERHAPS OUR SALMON PORTIONS
COULD BE COINCIDINGLY LARGER –
***
Liam Burke (he/him/himbo) lives in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe land. He is most recently the co-author of ‘machine dreams’ with natalie hanna (collusion books, 2021) and ‘Orbital Cultivation’ with Manahil Bandukwala (collusion books, forthcoming). His work has most recently appeared in INKSOUNDS, the Daily Drunk, Savant-Garde, the Jupiter Review, and long con magazine, and is forthcoming in Sledgehammer Lit.
***
image: Emily Bottomley is outside.
Rejection Letters 