Erika Lutzner
Erika Lutzner has written one book—While Everything Slipped Away From Me (Calypso Editions)—and four chapbooks: three with Dancing Girl Press and one with Kattywompus Press. She has a new chapbook forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press. Her work can also be found in journals such as Jet Fuel Review and Harpy Hybrid. She grew up in Garrett Park, MD, next to Porcupine Woods and behind the train tracks. She now resides in Brooklyn, NY. She is a former violinist and chef and loves cats.
Ars Poetica
Wanted: One heart. Used okay but in good shape. Must be very strong and from a person with good morals and outstanding physical condition...
My sister’s drug-dealer doctor and I flirt each week
We try to impress him
With outrageous stories
Of housecleaning in the nude
Men eating corn cobs smeared with shit
Lighting their asses on fire and begging for more
Her doctor sits there smugly thinking he has heard everything
Until we tell him something he never imagined
He gives us samples of Abilify and says mental health is like a circus
With his sexy French accent,
“It’s like doing handstands across a high wire,
you never know how it’s going to turn out.”
Melt your heart, he said
As if I had one, I thought
Almost anything can be found on the Internet these days
I put an ad on Craigslist for a new heart
I wonder if it will be a better model
Mine is strong and pumps well
But it’s a little icy
The blood gets caught somewhere between
I want to fuck you and you will never love me
There’s a rainbow just outside my reach
Your body is filled with antifreeze
I don’t need you to preach
Melt your heart, he said
As if I had one
“No, sorry. My boyfriend traded them to the purple haired girl
for a human carcass wash. She said he looked green
and gave him some watermelon.” We drive along the dunes.
The sky is full of azaleas. “Will you drop me off at Porn and Eggs?”
“Sure,” the driver says.
“Did you know that bacon is nature’s candy?” he asks.
“Wait! See that phone booth. I heard a rumor.
God’s supposed to be taking calls today.
Will you drop me off there instead?”
I hop onto the boat in the middle of the desert.
The taxi driver asks me if I have any mushrooms.