Still Life with Variation on a Line by Harmony Korine

An octopus could never feel happiness
and is all the better for it. The arctic fox 
feels enough loneliness for the entire world—
so he’s the best of us all. And how quickly the rest of us 
forget that one thing we woke up to do. We’d like 
to think it was love. Luckily, something else is always 
around the corner. We hope that’s love too. Me? 
It’s never that simple. I’m a mercenary. I hide in trees.

Checking My Bumble Messages While Playing Mario Kart

We’ll both probably wake up alone in skittish darkness 
tonight. The last girl I met in-person blinked 
strangely: one eye at a time, the way one foot follows 
the other. I didn’t know that was possible.
I found it so beautiful, so I planned on asking 
about it when the time felt right—which it never did, 
because she didn’t seem to like me very much. 
There must be someone out there who’s willing 
to fish a hand down my throat and heave 
this rope from my stomach without giving up 
halfway through. And I agree: that could be you,
but hold on. Something is right behind me.

The Green Knight Still Doesn’t Know What We Think of Him

Please, never wake me from a nightmare. I’d rather you 
let me sleep. After all, here is the blade that cuts through 
all these cardboard boxes, and here is the hand that holds it.
Trust me: I want this to make all the sense in the world
and none of the sense in the world at the same time.
There were 250 matches in this box when I bought it,
and now it’s completely empty. I see my reflection 
in the kitchen window while walking to the bathroom, 
and it occurs to me that I walk exactly like Bigfoot.
But you love me all the same. Wait. Is that still true? No, 
don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. Why would anyone?