three poems

by dee p. r. kay

post-everything

ephemeral painkillers:

daytime TV talking heads

with cathode ray halos

selling anesthesia as healing

dreams plagiarized from nightmares

jotted down in a red prison journal at 3 a.m.

our inner child's ghost

standing over a nameless grave

playing with a Ouija board

in the haze and plume of Palo Santo

asking Jung for answers

after 82 days no contact...

we got Kalsched

the planchette sidling-up to the abyss, whispering, “same”

floating as wraiths in the static

of the big nothing of it all

begging permission to feel something—anything!--post-everything

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!!!!!

look what you DID.

my own dayum fault

you rapped

on the hotel door

framed by darkness

thru the peephole

larger than life

IRL—

leopard skin booty shorts

crop top

candy-colored ensemble

was it really you?!

yes

yasssssssssssss!

past trysts

foiled

by bat soup plague

à la manufactured consent

and here we were...

you bolted to the window

the Margaritaville volcano alarm

BLARING

its hourly homage to Jimmy Buffett

i held you trembling

molten memories

of escape

from a three-alarm fire in NOLA

extinguished by tears

“I love how honest you are,”

you said,

when I was reticent

to French kiss

confessing i’d just eaten a triple whopper

& forgotten my toothbrush

fuck-trophy parasites & soccer moms

cluttered the hallway

as I hyperventilated

& you whispered,

“they’re gonna hear us”

selfie-h8tred

do socials—

because

you hear

your voice

as Pazuzu screeching

black metal

claws raking

a chalkboard

inside

the

din of

algorithmic

distortion

you see

yourself

as the woman

in Room 237

of the Overlook

a desiccated

ghost

of desire

the ineffable internet

le miroir noir

void

didn’t matter

that

to me

you were

all that

Photo of Dee P. R. Kay

BIO: dee lives and writes on the Gulf Coast with his two daughters. His first novel, We Dat, was published 2025. Dee has been published in Blood+Honey, The Argyle Literary Magazine, BULL, The Opiate, and etc. His handle on socials is @dee_p_r_kay

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four poems