Rikki Angelides

Mini Meditation

most of my thinking is arguments / in the shower I said horsehair is dangerously sweet 
those chestnut spiders just nibble through life / until clippers conquer that shaggy mane 
it’s bittersweet, isn’t it? / a future paintbrush / a bowed instrument   
probably down in Florida a nurse's daughter with a horse named Maple and a love for acrylic  
went to www.KnowYourPaintBrush.com and immediately voted against art enrichment programs 
in local government for the rest of her life / I tried to rationalize / tried to blame the horse girls 
tried to convince my girlfriend as she rinsed the shampoo —
vegans would eat genetically modified chickens with a removed consciousness —  
simply crown those chicks immobile and they are essentially plant based  
she said that’s fucked up / a stupendous way to jerk around compassion  
 
I know / I’m vacant-minded / ballooning with shit ideas / I don’t even eat meat 
my angel garland / I hate to cook it / but it’s these bogus arguments that keep getting me in trouble 
and lately I’ve been thinking about interactive death / a way for us to still play / still dance 
place ashes in a zen garden / rake around sadness 
but this hasn’t gone over well with the select few I’ve shared it with 
and I really don’t plan on teaching my kids that grandma is now part of our home decor 
it’s just a good image / no practical purpose / not even for conversation 
just a northern bobwhite with fur instead of feathers


Rikki Angelides is a poetry MFA candidate at Emerson College. She lives in Boston, reads poetry for Redivider, and currently works as the Marketing Associate at Ploughshares. You can read her work in OCCULUMEmpty Mirror, and VAGABOND CITY. Find her on Instagram+Twitter: @rikki_angelides.