Peter Cole Friedman

from Shit Mystic

the mirror 

walks away

mirrors

shouldn’t do that

to friends

pretend to sleep

when I look

for enough likes 

to love I forget 

that behind the hotel friend is 

a sewage person

puked the mirror 

together

out of other sewage

to eat of itself

it’s not clear

how it feels

when I smile

does the hotel friend feel

when I smile

it smells it

back for more
the hotel

will miss me

the way a fire misses 

the forest of no trees

or a drone misses 

death can only miss

what it knows

and it has never

burp kissed me

in sewage

or sucked my eyes

dry with its eyes

to look into the mirror is to live

at an angle

in a targeted ad about this

line drawing

of two snails

silvering the earth

with gunk

thousands of snaps worth

and not one recognized face

unless the face is an idea

relieved of ooze and voice

but in your gut

you know your brains

slosh around

you hear them

sloshing like truth

stinking up the filter

the stink almost godly

the godstink truth

memory of god

glow it out

the lowly slop

glow it out

luxe it

the shit out of it

crop the thumb

crop the gunk

the stink

the snails

same shit

everything

but the face

the face is where you are

in the selfie

in the right light

try to hold it

the gunk leaves

a beautiful pearlescent crust

don’t you agree


Peter Cole Friedman is a preschool teacher and writer living in Brooklyn. He is the co-founder of the literary/arts platform glitterMOB.