a summer Wednesday & my roommates & I drive out to Berkeley visit Nina in her historic house w/ the wide balcony the trampoline responsible for her roommate’s twisted ACL connive over mango Ices discuss solutions for anemia Aquarius rights & the ratio of tops to bottoms & though we outgrew this discourse in 2012 we still sing Frank Ocean’s riff on She her & her friends are still freshmen & haven’t had their gender crisis yet that’s for us the oldheads in skinny jeans & rope chains we say Nina’s neighborhood feels haunted she says probably & my polyester sundress has been praying over my skin for six hours Gati is wearing thrifted Karen Millen but for now she is warm & a little drunk but not so drunk that she is worried about her hair & the July has been making her skin glow earlier in the afternoon we'd shared a cig outside the Redwood City McDonald's but it was July & the air was so damn hot & we were more thirsty than afraid the pregame is late & Nina’s apartment is crowded with girls in miniskirts & baggy Carhartts & we’re a morass lashes drunk with sweat there was a tear in Gati’s trouser seam I traced with my teeth there is no Arab mermaid unaware of the sound of a Crusader’s laugh what I mean is war is the death of awe (among other women) Soju spills off the dining table the liquor makes our cheeks a livid pink a woman approaches my name diluvian in her mouth compliments my orange pressons they were her high school color & did I know I was dangerous? she turns my palms over in her hands but it’s Wednesday night the set is perfect the mojitos suck the neighborhood’s bloomed/corroding & Nina’s lacy tank top makes her look resurrected