2 poems
by Ari Lisner
Ari Lisner is a transmasculine poet, journalist, and researcher based in Brooklyn. Their writing has been featured in GQ, Allure, Love Injection, Lowly Dirt Child, Pan Pan Press, and Funny Looking Dog. Their work aims to capture queer living, intimacy, and culture, often against the backdrop of New York City and its iconography.
MY OWN BLUETS LMAO
Bluet 1
My moods and blue powder coated boogers on my COVID swab or handing girls glistening Advil LiquiGels the morning after trying to quell the blue as well as the sky when it looks solid against the Ridgewood brick during any old golden hour and me just posing basking in it from my bed in my LL Bean robe with my name embroidered to it because navy blue is the official color of boyfriends and I’m holding up a Blue Frost Gatorade to the sun and it tastes like what the sea should probably taste like and I bought on my Chase Sapphire card all to spill some on my royal blue rug
Bluet 2
Though I keep yammering on that I should be pushed in front of moving traffic
I am really at brunch
We’re being ridiculous
Eating
Poached eggs
Lamb shank tagine
Squeaky halloumi cheese
In fucking Williamsburg
Bluet 3
When you come around my fingers
I can usually tell
When you leave
I am not devastated
You’ll text to say it’s gorgeous out and I say
You’re my weather woman
With the latest
ERRANDS
I roll up in the rental car and you have an almond cortado for me
which sets the tone: nutty, mature, indulgent
You’re dead set on a three hundred dollar lamp
your hand is on your hip when the Jewy shop boy pulls it out in the open
we watch him tighten its joints with a teeny tiny screwdriver
It’s hot to me to play your errand boy or your sexy son or your faithful boyfriend there
with your purse hanging on your forearm and you
making big decisions
maybe you turn back at me and maybe you don’t
We effectively communicate and
hit all the green lights
make gorgeous time
and drive the rental car into the city to bring things
back to stores in bliss
All the way to the Crate and Barrel on Broadway to return some utensils
then up to the second floor
and you’re in there peeing
I wait like men wait and I touch the towels
weirdly they’re rough
then I drag my finger across the plasticy furniture
It’s all a hundred thousand dollars
So I think about marrying you in the Crate and Barrel
and check myself out in the big mirrors
We are simply running errands but it’s beautiful
Feeling mayoral and might have queered it
I’m a one schtick pony
Galloping again