a baby in a trash bag

when nicole calls, i am thinking
of a dream i had of emily
and a baby in a trash bag.
wearing only a diaper,
with its mouth opened wide,
it stretched the bag against its face.

in the dream,
emily looked at me and said,
see?

when nicole calls, i am thinking
of a halsey song i’d heard that morning,
the question repeating in my head:
tell me how’s it feel sittin’ up there?
name in the sky, does it ever
get lonely?

do i ever get lonely? i think
of a smooth stretch of plastic
soothing me in its swaddled embrace.

when nicole calls, she says i shouldn’t
call her back anymore. she says
the flowers i sent for her birthday
have died already. she says
they probably dreamt
of emily too. my face

pressed against that trash bag,
i look at emily and say,
see?

Alisha Escobedo (she/her/hers) received her MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles and her BA from Columbia College. Her work explores themes such as queer womanhood and addiction, among other things, and can be found in the Acentos Review, The Los Angeles Press, Desolate Country: We the Poets, United, Against Trump and Prompts!: A Spontaneous Anthology. She currently resides in San Antonio, TX, where she sporadically posts/deletes photos to/from her IG story @ayescobe.