by COURTNEY LEBLANC
Spring 2000, just a few months after we worried the world would end with Y2K or at least fry our electronics. Neither of those happened but we still marveled at this new millennium. I was 21, a mediocre waitress at Applebee’s and you were the roommate of the blind date I had three weeks prior. That date hadn’t led anywhere but you apparently remembered me. I brought beers to your table and when I walked away you followed, asked for my number. I gave it to you even though I couldn’t remember your name and was too embarrassed to ask. Eventually you proposed to me twice, ended our relationship a dozen times, tattooed my initials along with a broken heart on the inside of your bicep, threatened me, married me, loved me, hated me. You called the next day, said, It’s B—. I didn’t know your name would stain my tongue for nearly a decade. Later, you read my journal and my emails, shoved the coffee table across the room, the sea glass rained down like glittering confetti. You called me names I repeated only to my therapist. But that night in the restaurant I couldn’t see the way we would ricochet against one another for nine years. I saw only your brilliant smile, your hand reaching out to take the slip of paper with my number on it.
COURTNEY LEBLANC is the author of the full length collections Exquisite Bloody, Beating Heart (Riot in Your Throat) and Beautiful & Full of Monsters (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press). She is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Riot in Your Throat, an independent poetry press. She loves nail polish, tattoos, and a soy latte each morning. Read her publications on her blog: www.wordperv.com. Follow her on twitter: @wordperv, and IG: @wordperv79.
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REVOLUTION JOHN 