Astoria, Queens, New York City,
New York State, America
This beauty? For sale.
I honestly don’t know what kind is.
I know sturdy, dinged up, like we all do.
I know the low low price of free or best offer.
It’s kind of fucked, actually.
I’d sell so much of my growing up:
Chicago, college, garbage dump job,
drinking beer. Trying to not get AIDS.
My first assshole, gorgeous
apartment with a balcony.
I wish I had been older. I wasn’t ready
for that kind of life yet. I wanted to be
a skyscraper. I wanted to be in Paris,
the wind ruffling my perfectly coiffed hair.
Those were the good years, for me.
Who am I becoming?
Someone I like? Or just Someone
Who Lives In New York City?
The fact is that I can’t fit in anymore.
Maybe this life-cycle ends here and now.
Maybe the earth needs my energy back.
Wouldn’t that be freaking beautiful?
But maybe someone out there needs
a home, a purpose, a next journey, a partnership.
Offer. Maybe the highest bidder wins.
Source & Method
The source text of the poem is (a craigslist ad that has been taken down.) I used the blackout method and added line breaks to create this poem. There were only a few instances where I had to change a word or tense for flow and understandability.
Lauren Linkowski is a learning specialist in the New York metro area. When she is not writing poetry with the Sound Shore Writers Group, she is hiking, traveling, and spending time her boyfriend and her cat, Mr. Checkers.
Photo by Pascal Weiland on Unsplash