#ali shapiro

[havingapoemwithyou]

Staying by Ali Shapiro

[allloversbetray]

Leaving Home by Ali Shapiro

[choysum]

sonnet in denial by ali shapiro

[nostalgic-suggestions]

“Dogs in Love” by Ali Shapiro

[spiceberrie]

staying, ali shapiro

[calvinandhobbes]

— Ali Shapiro, “If I Leave You Then Maybe I Won’t Have To Miss You So Much”

[danielriddlerodriguez]

GHOST ALONE —Ali Shapiro eats breakfast for dinner, because what’s breakfast anyway, just a concept, like time, but not like decay, or taste. The stove is broken so Ghost sets the house on fire. What’s a house, anyway. Now it’s a stove. Alone, Ghost misses her own body the most, then everyone else’s bodies. She still feels hungry but these days it’s a diffuse thing, not delimited by any stomach, an atmosphere of appetite, the way the flames, all mouth, devour everything without explanation. Ghost burns the toast, accidentally whisks a wisp of herself into the eggs, scrambles them anyway. What’s a body, anyway.

[beeseverywhen]

Leaving Would Be Easier If One or Maybe Both of Us Were Dead

Sometimes I wish for it—a vanishing

point, a place where our bodies could go

to finally stop moving. To hold you like the Cape

holds the quiet bay, in the crook

of its long dark arm. But the moon

is a searchlight tonight, the wind

one long moan, and this house

has too many doors that slam open

and closed. Once I wished

to be stranded like this, to have the choice

made for me—the lines

down, the roads frozen, the nearest

town miles away, and you

with your mouth so close

to my ear I could feel

your whisper steaming: Make

me scream. But

how? I’ve lost

the bag I meant to zip this in, the ax

I meant to chop it up with, the map

to where I’d stash it in the woods.

I know no one gets off

scot-free, it’s because

of the body, the way

it remembers. Sometimes you jump

when I touch your throat, sometimes you stand

at the window and wrap

yourself in your own

thin arms, watching the blank

black screen of the night, the invisible boats

clanging their halyards

like ghosts. We could see

them if we turned

all the lights off the way

that we used to—the way once, you were sure

who was out there, and if it was me

what I would do to you.

Ali Shapiro