
Measures of Worth
Throat a hundred times cleared at a thousand decibels. Anger at putrid layers two-thirds folded on warm subway car. A billion absorptions within seconds of dynamic twerking bell. Blind eatery of “just corn” and fat, fatty, fattiest resigned lard. Foreigners buying prime American real estate with cash. Freely arrested feet at calm, friendly and solar bright insult. Fulsome lonesomes drinking cold beers with some cash. Mea culpa without understanding or cultivated belief in fault. Haitian monkeys paraded with branded sida scarlet letters. Fun butterfly with charming aplomb and cocaine confidence. Political sandwiches asserting a patriotic pout with cuban settlers. Fear trembling backyard with slippery, expa/ensive and unintimidating fence. Last minute competition alarm to salvage the forgotten’s education. Silicon Valley of mythical gods & silicon alley of terrestrial philosophers. Beachfront net neutrality for posterity with regimented machinations. Independent labor with negative balance and unknown exponents in coffers. Limits to how small a beggar worth giving to is allowed to make himself. Appalled certainty shouting “you lie” at perceptive socialist mexican president. Subversive reduced to success by art piece least like himself. Absurd pace and enclosed face to create life beyond precedent. Lazy affect-seeking rhymes unconcerned with hypertrophic posture.

Stephanie Jean is the winner of the BOMB Poetry Contest 2020 Judged by Simone White. Her poems have appeared in the Journal of Poetics Research, [PANK] and The Southampton Review.
