Gagas, and: Tentative Forward

111 GAGAS ERICA ANZALONE A man tells me he’s seen gagas rise as an animatronic octopus above the sockdolager. He’s got a little girl. I’m her brother. I reach into the toilet to flush it. This bar used to be a funeral. A cat’s eye looks up from my cosmopolitan. I drink it. It scratches my gambrinus all the way down, chatoyant couvade pregnant with the next messiah. Samurai slit their throats and drop to sleep in the snow. 112 TENTATIVE FORWARD ERICA ANZALONE 1. At the crosswalk waiting for the light to turn I see a woman in a car mouth moving in the blown-up curse—a burning bush I am the great I am an old man hobbling across the street his cane his eye the serpent from stick tentative forward slide on concrete the sidewalk awash in red pity his starched shirt the will to be next to Godliness to survive despite the shriveled turnip writhing beneath our bed The world wants us to be different Faster, younger, perfect as a little girl in a snowsuit in the snow— 2. A man tells me he won’t jaywalk Not worth it to get sent to stupid jail in this city I went to jail once but it wasn’t my fault My girlfriend punched me I punched her back don’t worry “His sweatpants billow in the wind” I have a good heart He jabs the button We wait for the light to change 113 3. My dollars jam on the bus “It is a felony to accost a bus driver” A girl is crying on a poster “The average age of prostitution is thirteen” The woman sitting in front of me has fake blond hair in a bun strung with pearls and in profile her face is hard tile ...