Poetry By Emma Conlon

JenavieveMarie CC


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Hot Girl Shit 
after Amy Kay 

eating in bed / forgetting to wash the sheets / digging the box out of the kitchen trash because you forgot to read the instructions / arguing with fascists on twitter / browsing cat adoption websites to ease the void / kissing strangers and calling it love / scribbling small scraps of poems onto loose paper you’ll never see again / shopping second hand / singing in your car at a stoplight / remembering to take your antidepressants / waking up with weird tan lines after falling asleep on the beach / nursing the plants you forgot to water back to life / drinking a whole bottle of wine by yourself / upholding your boundaries / sending the call to voicemail / scratching your bug bites until they bleed / letting the slurpee melt into sticky soup on your hot dashboard / catching the spider in a glass and letting it go outside / sleeping beneath your unfolded laundry / taking advice from the five year old you babysit because you have nothing left to lose / giving a fake phone number before slipping away into the night / following your skincare routine like a religious zealot / playing animal crossing instead of doing your homework / refusing to break eye contact when strangers stare at you / getting the tattoos you’ve always wanted / crying over your breakfast before work / procrastinating as long as humanly possible / having a drunk cigarette, as a treat / picking other people’s litter off the ground / refusing to shave your legs until you’re good and goddamn ready / ordering takeout on a weeknight / listening to the same music you liked when you were 14 / hushing the hum of your people pleasing heart / staying up until the sun starts to rise / forgiving yourself for the things you cannot change / refusing to go quietly / screaming back at the howling abyss



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​Emma Conlon (she/her) is an emerging poet and a recent graduate of the University of Virginia. Her work is published or forthcoming in Eunoia Review, Pen & Pendulum, Merak Magazine, Red Noise Collective, Sweet Lit, and elsewhere. Her debut poetry collection, Changing of the Tides & Other Poems, was self-published in 2022. Find more of her work at emmaconlon.com.