Life, Dating, and Other Inconvenient Things

22

I just want to be able

To submit a job application 

Without feeling like

I just sent a risky text

To a lover

Exposure therapy 

Why do I pay a professional

For 60 minutes a week

Of cognitive behavioral therapy

When I challenge my anxiety

Every day, by default

Exposure therapy

Is living in the same city as you

“Don’t shit where you eat”

Being slutty

Is liberating

Until you have ruined

Every neighborhood

In New York city

Ca·su·al 

Boys like girls who

are adventurous

And I’ll make your

Fantasy a reality

I can roleplay the girl who hasn’t

found your LinkedIn profile

Or viewed the floor plan

Of your apartment online

Let’s have a threesome

Me, you, and my private

Feelings about

This relationship

And when I’ve moved on

You can try to reenter my life

Because it’s famously sexy

When men return the favor

A limerick about the Lower East Side

Performative affection

Is faking a loving connection

I did not expect it

Although, I will admit

It felt better than your rejection

Ex-terminate 

Cockroaches crawl

Out of the woodwork 

And feel entitled 

To things that are not theirs

Maybe I should hire

An exterminator 

A collaborative effort: A haiku

Shitty men employed

My therapist for 3 years

By bothering me

On inhabiting a body: A haiku

I need you to look

At me but attention

Makes me feel sweaty