Here the neighbor screams for Frankie

By Arisa White

to get the TV out of her mind.

Here is your fear and anxiety in everything you offer.

You are disingenuous and have no friends.

You are here to feel this way.

You understand the tigers and the unbearable.

Here you are selfish in your dreams,

more selfish with your aviations.

Your train stops here and gets sprayed on.

Here you lose the love of your life and make do.

Smoke yourself into a private hole.

Here is where your unmentionables go.

Your manipulated, molested, your raped.

Here’s a cigarette.

You are the least attractive to yourself.

You don’t have a proper match.

There’s nothing at stake here.

Here you play a different role in a syndicated sadness.

Arisa White is a Cave Canem fellow, an MFA graduate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is the author of the chapbooks Disposition for Shininess and Post Pardon, as well as the full-length collections Hurrah’s Nest and A Penny Saved. Her debut collection, Hurrah’s Nest, was nominated for a 44th NAACP Image Award and is a finalist for the 82nd California Book Awards. Co-editor for HER KIND, an online literary community powered by VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, and the editorial manager for Dance Studio Life magazine, Arisa has received residencies, fellowships, or scholarships from Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, Rose O’Neill Literary House, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Hedgebrook, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Prague Summer Program, Fine Arts Work Center, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2005, her poetry has been widely published and is featured on the recording WORD with the Jessica Jones Quartet. Arisa is a native New Yorker, living in Oakland, CA, with her partner. For more information visit arisawhite.com or facebook.com/Arisapage.