They got the Internet on the street—drunk, naked, and pregnant. Ass. Out. She’s stumbling around, got no shoes on, taking videos of fucking homeless folks and everybody acting like they’re minding their own business…
Needles, broken glass… all the shit y’all already know about.
I called a fella from school and asked him if he’s seeing it back home.
He told me it’s like this everywhere and there ain’ nowhere left for me to go off to—they’ve got the same pictures, the same folks, and the library had a miscarriage.
I said tell me about that, the last part.
And he did.
He said, A dollar only goes as far as you can throw it
He said, You ought not‘ve left home to find strangers, folks always change.
He said, and meant: You remember? Looking for naked women in the big art books?
He said, Everything’s after school and the library’ll never get grandkids she keeps sloughing like this…
And I said all this to say: It can’t be any of us no more what does what needs getting done. They got our tongues tied round our ankles and my hands in somebody else’s mouth. I like the way it makes their face look, but y’all already seen all that, didn’t you?
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K HANK JOST is a writer of fiction born in Texas and raised in Georgia. He is the author of the novel-in-stories Deselections, the novel MadStone, and is editor-in-chief of the literary quarterly A Common Well Journal--produced and published by Whiskey Tit Books. His fiction and poetry have been recently featured in Vol.1 Brooklyn, The Burning Palace, and Hobart. He is currently seeking representation for his newest novel, Aquarium, while he works on his fourth book. Residing in Brooklyn with his partner, he reads as much as he can, writes as much as he can, and works as much as he must. Instagram: @hank_being_a_better_ape.
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