Poetry By Kassie Shanafelt

Basic

You Chaco-wearing-thrift-store-baby-armpit-haired hipster. A thousand pumpkin spiced lattes
course through your veins, and they call you basic. You’re a lipstick-stained mimosa glass with
pulp clinging to the sides. Unstrained has never looked as desirable as you. You’re a line, and
people in New York City will wait on you without a clue what they are waiting for. You’re a
large popcorn with butter oozing out of the bag. You’re a ballpoint pen. You’re a spare room. A
side of avocado. A brand new brand name bed. You’re a moleskin waiting to be filled with
meaning. A half a million strands of perfectly highlighted hair. Bleached until the darkness is
washed out and the memories fried.




Alternate Universe Where I Do Not Try To Fit In During High School

after Olivia Gatwood

In an alternate version of reality, when the cheerleader from home economics class asks me to
join her group for the cooking contest as the official onion cutter, I boil a pot of my best friends
saltiest tears and serve them as soup. When the resident cool mom gets me a pack of Smirnoff
Ice for my sixteenth birthday, I mix them with finger paints and smear them all over her front
porch. When the school counselor calls my mother to tell her I’m running around with a bad
crowd, I embroider scarlet letters on the entire student body’s letterman jackets. When the boy at
the video store gives me free popcorn, I pour it out along the highway creating a trail that doesn’t
lead to anything. When my parents tie me to a curfew that is three inches long, I paint it gold and
wear it around my neck like a chain. I do not cut my hair. I do not spend my weekends
disorganizing the shelves at Walmart. I don’t get breakouts because I don’t wear makeup. I can
see the reflection of this version of myself in a sliding subway door, but I cannot touch her. She
is on her way to be something more.


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Bio: Kassie lives in Brooklyn. Her writing has appeared in Cauldron Anthology, Coffin Bell Journal, Philosophical Idiot, and others. She enjoys true crime podcasts, mangos, and cats.