Cover Art: Blake MacKowick
Cover & Interior Design: Alban FischerPaperback, 80 pages
May 15, 2018, ISBN 978-1-936919-57-4
about jamie mortara
jamie mortara (they/them/their) is a queer poet, performer, publisher, organizer, and artist. They grew up in New Jersey and have learned to stop apologizing for it. jamie is author of the poetry collections GOOD MORNING AMERICA I AM HUNGRY AND ON FIRE (YesYes Books, 2018) and some planet (YesYes Books, 2015) and the interactive fiction collection small creatures / wide field (tNY Press). Three of their DIY zines are indie bestsellers and the others are likely scattered to the winds somewhere. jamie is founder of the audio poetry magazine Voicemail Poems, a National Poetry Slam competitor, and has performed their poetry in 29 states and counting. jamie holds an MFA from UNCW and is a proud Capricorn. More about jamie can be found at jamiemortara.com.
GOOD MORNING AMERICA I AM HUNGRY AND ON FIRE by jamie mortara
Finalist, Believer Book Award in Poetry, 2018
Finalist, Milt Kessler Poerty Book Award, 2019
Finalist, CLMP Firecracker Award in Poetry, 2019
Now That I've Exploded
it’s like the firetrucks
actually sound
like they’re celebrating
it’s like the highway
at a distance
sounds like people cheering
like they’re at a concert in honor of me:
the Queen of Spectacular Mistakes
and now
now that i’ve exploded
now that i am fire for so long
such slow burn now
i turn this entire saloon into cinder
turn every suitor into kindling
you know what they say:
you can take the girl out of Jersey
but you can’t take the Jersey out of
Go Fuck Yourself.
oh honey
there’s plenty of other fish in the sea
oh honey
plenty more hot coals to swallow
now my car
it runs on my anger
the conversion process isn’t hard to master
the firefighter
never fights fire with fire
all you get
is more fire
and you must think you can fight the fire
because it was somehow asking for it
like it’s just too damn hot to leave alone
like fire’s okay as long as it ain’t Wild
now that i’ve exploded
i wouldn’t wish a corporeal form
on anyone
i’d take burn over break
any day of the week
and now
now that i’ve exploded
smiling within this city’s limits
is the sweetest revenge i can get
it’s like it never ends
and it’s just beginning
it’s like how
just yesterday
i was driving off
to anywhere else
when a terrified deer
bolted across the intersection
how it just barely dodged two speeding cars
how it tried to leap this metal fence
but got clipped hard
by the sharp of it
how it somersaulted right off the bridge
it is just like that
like me
peering down towards the rocks
where the river used to be
the animal already gone through the trees
now that i’ve exploded
it is just like that
like how i died from you
no body
no burial
just
driving away
silent
