Poems and Texts

from “Emoji for Cher Heart” by Maxe Crandall

from Emoji for Cher Heart

The Mask in the Middle
O M Y
O S C A R

big gold
honey daddy
the breakfast
in my heart
is panicking
burning
through the loin
under the cloth

I can’t
turn back time
to before
myth martyr
but I try…

Our order
comes
first
finally

we
r
ecstatic

O HOW
WILL I
cherish
this half share
horse wear
you’ll never
begin to
KNOW,
CHER

&   my friends
GLOW SO
WIDE-EYED
UPON ME,
little baby
knifefishes
they are
when I disclose
over top Cher’s
ornery
blinking

All John Wayne
bubble talk:
“You brunch
of guppies,
I ordered
this generous meal
and paid by
check in the
comfort of
my own
phone
for you”

I feel so slick shaming
& in glitter gloves
these kids actively spank my
tacky table top
nearly over
(it stings
when I buy it)
until we refuse
to take a tip

Cher, I want you to know
I go home directly
après dinner
thinking of your houses
&
your horselong career

[ACTIVATE via scrolling text]
selong glances * Dreaming horselong glances * Dreaming hors

I just this once forgot to tweet you
?

Maxe Crandall

Maxe Crandall is the author of Together Men Make Paradigms (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs chapbook, 2014) and Emoji for Cher Heart (belladonna* chaplet, 2014). Last year, Together Men Make Paradigms premiered at Dixon Place with an all poet and activist cast and was a finalist for the Leslie Scalapino Award. A 2014 Poetry Project Emerge-Surface-Be Fellow and a 2014 Poets House Fellow, Maxe co-directs the pilot program “Readings in Gender and Sexuality” in the Undergraduate Writing Program at Columbia University.