I am tired of being scared of being scared. I am tired of being. I am tired of billionaires not exploding in the sky. I am tired of never having a reason to say the word marsupial. I am tired of wondering how many people died today and why and if body bags ever commit suicide. I am tired of never having a reason to buy a guitar, so I decide to start a cover band that covers cover bands. I am tired of never washing my hair under a waterfall. I am tired of never screaming, Give me Mario Kart or give me Mario Kart while getting fucked in the breakroom of a GameStop. I am tired of waiting for a poem to finish itself. I am tired of how we lose everything and if we didn’t lose it then it was never ours to begin with.
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Leigh Chadwick is the author of the poetry collection Your Favorite Poet (Malarkey Books, 2022) and the collaborative poetry collection Too Much Tongue (Autofocus, 2022), co-written with Adrienne Marie Barrios. Her poetry has appeared in Salamander, Passages North, Identity Theory, The Indianapolis Review, Pithead Chapel, and Hobart, among others. She is the executive editor of Redacted Books and is also a regular contributor at Olney Magazine, where she conducts the “Mediocre Conversations” interview series. Find her on Twitter at @LeighChadwick5.
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image: MM Kaufman
Rejection Letters 