from Report from the Reimer Society, Vol. 1 No. 1
One
of the few things I brought from
Vancouver
to LA
was
the plush cake
you
bought me for Christmas
the
stuffed one
with
the pennies inside.
I
put pennies in my shoes
to
weigh me down because
LA
has made me spacey dude
I’m
all finger guns
and
besties with executives
doomscrolling
my Tesla
on
Ambien. JK.
Some
guy once wouldn’t leave me
alone,
said he knew I was famous
knew
me from somewhere
he
finally moved on
when
I told him I was a poet,
the
pennies in my shoes
rattling
as I walked away.
Pennies
aren’t worth anything
anymore,
inflation is hot hot hot!
An
Instagram reel taught me
to
shellac the floors with my leftover
pennies,
I’ll build a road with them
to
Santa Monica pier. If you visit
I
know a nice place nearby
where
we can talk poems, heckle
the
ghost of Bukowski
throw
the last of our pennies
in
the La Brea tar pit.
Daniel Zomparelli is the author of Davie Street Translations, and Rom Com co-written with Dina Del Bucchia. His collection Everything Is Awful and You’re a Terrible Person was nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and won the ReLit Short Fiction Award. He co-edited Queer Little Nightmares with David Ly. His latest book of poetry Jump Scare will be published spring of 2024.