Jan. 15, 2023
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OCD
By Dani Putney
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OCD
By Dani Putney
You’ll break the lamp
on your desk and use the shards
to stab a colleague.
So you move the lamp
to the corner of your desk.
A colleague will pass,
you’ll slam their face
into the lamp, glass on purple lips,
what a mess.
So you bury the lamp
under your desk, nothing to see.
You’ll unscrew the bulb,
thumb your way to the filament,
rub the readymade shark’s mouth
along your leg. What’s that
crackling sound? a colleague will ask.
So you smash the lamp
in the parking lot, fragments airborne
like sand in medias res.
No more lamp, unless
you buy another on sale at Target,
put it on your desk tomorrow.
What a pretty lamp,
a colleague will say.
You’ll break the lamp.
Dani Putney
Dani Putney (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, mixed-race Filipinx, and neurodivergent writer originally from Sacramento, California. Their debut collection, Salamat sa Intersectionality (Okay Donkey Press, 2021), was a finalist for the 2022 Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Poetry. They’re also the author of the poetry chapbook Dela Torre (Sundress Publications, 2022). You can find their poetry in outlets such as Cream City Review, Foglifter, FOLIO, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and Quarter After Eight, while their personal essays appear in journals such as Cold Mountain Review, Crab Creek Review, and Quarterly West. They live in the middle of the Nevada desert.
Visit their website, or follow them on Twitter and IG.
Image Description: A non-binary, mixed-race individual wearing a green T-shirt and red jacket stands in front of a white column with bright green tree branches in the background.