Galentine’s Day — Split Lip Magazine

Harry calls me Lover so exclusively
it’s permeated my self-talk: Lover, The Eudemian
Ethics won’t read itself. Lover, just enjoy
the unseasonable warmth. But enough about lovers!

Today I’ve got galentines to collage
with this festive, misshapen heart
Aline sewed onto my cardigan. For her, I cut out
mango, sprig of cilantro, the words life’s too short

even if right now she’d disagree, caught
in the perennial sci-fi of nation-states.
For Isaiah, nude bathers, a twosome
of cherries, the inkling of desire

intended to hush his heartbreak. Boyfriends,
bomb trains: everything’s impossible, derailed
and leaking vinyl chloride. I laminate my cards
with packing tape. I always accidentally told everyone

I lobe them, so now I sign off with an ear
emoji, whose disembodied delivery feels a little
too apt cuz though Harry claims he’s not
a cannibal, he always accidentally

insists I want to bite off your ear and chew
on it like gum. Real Armie Hammer-
type-shit, which tracks, cuz Harry ate up
Call Me By Your Name. Not me!

I need more dialogue, less moody
eye contact in the piazza. There’s so much
I can’t relate to. I swipe through whole cities’
dating profiles and fail to imagine calling

myself either chill or open-minded. I loathe pets,
reality TV, and centrism. But when Aline needs me
to dog-sit, I let Molly up onto my couch
and call her Sweet-sweet. You know I love a good pet

name. Zay-zay’s far-left heart often testifies
at public hearings. Isaiah’s friend, the taco truck vendor
hailed me once, and I ran right to that window. Isaiah’s
friend, tip generously. Isaiah’s friend, get off your ass and go

door-knocking. Aristotle instructs us to multiply
friendship as a political act. I don’t have better ideas.
Only these scissors, this address book.
Only my two good ears, at least for now.

Kurt David (@krtdvdwrtr) is a current MFA candidate at The Ohio State University and former Macrorie Fellow at Middlebury’s Bread Loaf School of English. Before moving to Columbus, he taught at a public high school and agitated for social and climate justice as part of his teachers union. Also, he ran a queer book club called Reading Rainbow. His work has appeared in Foglifter, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere.