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Empress Indignant
Inspired by true events
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come home
And how is this the same body that bent at the small of the back, en route to the moon—stopstopSTOP—lest you arrive too soon.
Lena Drake
Mar 8, 20231 min read
34 views
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Easy Find
Love is a big place an easy find a quick elevator ride
Lena Drake
Dec 10, 20221 min read
78 views
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dried
Once you’ve finished drying yourself out, take stock of what truths you find yourself shouting to strangers in bathrooms hoping that...
Lena Drake
Jun 13, 20221 min read
188 views
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Coop
I left the kind of wedding that made you want to get married. Oaks, live witnesses to promises you were sure they'd keep. Car ride home...
Lena Drake
May 17, 20221 min read
226 views
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the boy with three houses
White, straight teeth, with lifts in his shoes. Money can't make you taller, but it can buy you french food. If he asks you on a date,...
Lena Drake
Apr 21, 20221 min read
25 views
1 comment


The Wild Girl
You’ll find her on Sunset Blvd heavy eyes, lips ajar. She picks a carnation, white, from the neighbor's lawn. Her face lifts and falls,...
Lena Drake
Nov 9, 20211 min read
46 views
1 comment


Look, before
I used to find you funny. You’re thinner now, like each year has eaten the pieces of your insides that used to make me laugh. I used to...
Lena Drake
Jun 23, 20211 min read
21 views
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Unreliable
Forever, you say,
is how we console children
you don't believe in consolation
but I am a child
Lena Drake
Apr 13, 20211 min read
45 views
0 comments


Souvenir
How often I've imagined your voice after coffee; the sound like scratching; the smell like desert. How often I've imagined your fingers...
Lena Drake
Mar 11, 20211 min read
28 views
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Enemy
The vastness of her legs and stomach
belong to a higher power.
She is not owner, but vassal of
her figure; supplying their demand.
Lena Drake
Jan 15, 20211 min read
98 views
0 comments


to remember your face at night
Reaching across the clammy world
to remember your face at night
the cities we've stepped on
frenzied with drink
and the sounds of love
Lena Drake
Oct 27, 20201 min read
261 views
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Color One
If everything was blue our ending would appear happier; we'd call a break a beginning If everything was red my anger would dull against...
Lena Drake
Oct 24, 20201 min read
88 views
1 comment


In Another World
In another world, you took the 9am flight and moved into an apartment on Bleecker Street, so you could tell everyone you lived in New York.
Lena Drake
Oct 2, 20201 min read
159 views
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Delusion has a maternal instinct
Dinner is ready and the weather is great and I love my job and the kids are just fine and we have a trip planned for summer and isn't that s
Lena Drake
Sep 11, 20201 min read
102 views
1 comment


the thick of you
I made this mess
in the thick of you;
the tangled, stuffy bits
with their shades
of distrust
their claws.
Lena Drake
Aug 30, 20201 min read
237 views
0 comments


Letter to LA
I arrived much obliged, having waited quite some time to reside in Tinseltown. But what I’d marveled at from afar—what I thought were...
Lena Drake
Aug 7, 20201 min read
79 views
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A matter of perspective
Do you remember me as I am?
I lean against your empty wall
or as you wanted me to be?
Lena Drake
Jul 15, 20201 min read
149 views
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Sun, constant
Nothing breathes here, not the way you're supposed to
where you give back what you take in.
Lena Drake
Jul 5, 20201 min read
21 views
0 comments


Bad Lands
sweet boy, tired boy to the Bad Lands we go searching for eyes I can’t find anymore yellow, trumpet-shaped flowers with spines strong and...
Lena Drake
May 22, 20201 min read
40 views
0 comments


Stay for breakfast, or drugs
The age of, "Are you staying for breakfast," wears off, as do the drugs.
Lena Drake
May 7, 20201 min read
41 views
0 comments
αυτοκράτειρα αγανακτισμένη
1993

Just tell the story again, of the sparrows who flew from falling Rome, their blazed wings.
-Ocean Vuong
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