Frances Klein
Venmo Request for Therapy Money from the Boy
Who Called Me an “8” in His Myspace Hotness Rankings
For the way my lizard brain craved those last two points
For the way I scoured the rankings for my name
For the way I started at the bottom
For the way my heart was in the basement
knowing that the only thing worse than a low ranking was no ranking
For the way I didn’t even blink when I saw that Tiffany’s
ass was a 7 but her face was a 3
For the way countless men and women worked long hours
missed golden anniversaries and oboe solos with only one wrong note
to string together the ones and zeros of the world wide web
for our education and enlightenment
and we use it to destroy each other
Men Talk to Me in Diners
And waiting rooms, in lines
and on airplanes.
I was in the war, they say,
and their hats nod:
he was in the war.
They tell me about travels
and marriages, children who call
and don’t, grandchildren growing up
foreigners to them in a country
they no longer know.
They talk to me with headphones in,
with a book or notebook out,
exclusively when alone.
My solitude is their opening,
and I owe them my full attention.
Frances Klein (she/her) is a poet and teacher writing at the intersection of disability and gender. She is the author of the chapbook New and Permanent (Blanket Sea 2022) and The Best Secret (Bottlecap Press 2022). Klein currently serves as assistant editor of Southern Humanities Review. Readers can find more of her work at https://kleinpoetryblog.wordpress.com/.
