<h6 class="exempt-from-text-fit-calculation" style="text-align: center;">from <em>The Claire Bitch Project</em></h6>


    *


    Too bad in the sun the story is the same

                   over here they try it again

                               That’s all alright
                                           perfectly the same
                                           old time
                   twice on the wind
    Outside
                   the plane silently overhead

    What are you doing? this swing is
    Warm

    prick the old fire

                   This space all over is
                               Quiet for some reason

    fast over there

    Come back
                   Don’t stop in the

    At the same time i’m leaving

    How to accommodate this
    big as ever
                               Expand
                                           to fit you

    and you are all the space
                                           There was never

    Outside i’m waiting for help

    Your hand over my mouth
                                           My head
    Next press into me

    I’m on the only road I’m some
                   monster
                               I’m about to run out
                               into the dark
                                           I’m a dark top

    And the talk is the problem
                   Once around
                   twice


    The pressure suspends on
                               what freed it


    the sound goes somewhere


    *


                   somewhere and it’s back

    cover your hot head
                   The sun
                               on the outside of your room
    the sky in disarray
                   The rock on the roof

    you’re some
    other Creature

                               distant sin

                   Sane now the red spirit
                   moves faster

                               Wind picks up
                               Face together the wind

                   And i said on the other side
    i’m red
                   and i’m waiting for to grow

    I’m a brick in the distant weather
    you don’t want to change

                   You don’t want to say you said that
                   but it comes back

    As you move you move so slow
    you move So much more than me


    *


    at the end you start
                   to move Forward
    and he’s back in the white car

    In the dirt on your road
                   before we never had enough time
    and now the spirit is moving to the other side

                               That’s a little rabbit on the road
                               That’s a little bit more that you expected

    The morning on the other
                   Fasting getting small
                               in your eye
    Getting small before bigger
                   things come out to get it

                               The other little special other
                               on the road to your home

                   That i can feel you behind me
                   the reason you check over your shoulder

                               and the light comes on
                                           you’re here

    take this hand
                   against my mouth
                               my face
                   a little wider than expected
    Than expect we come together too often
                   not breaking
                               things out my window

    My widow on the mend
                   in the bend in the river
                               that’s an elbow
                   On the shoulder
    And my left eye can look back

    I think you don't expect me
    and i’m here

                   On the other hand it’s getting later

    The thing i stop having
    to my pleasure

    bad things
                   on the other end
    And bad little creature
                   my head

    I can’t hear you anymore
    I can’t hear where you’re moving to

                   But i feel the whole place shake again
                               under my feet the grass grows
                               even through dirt
                               Even in the white light and the landscape
                               is always the same

    The static coming
                                           Louder Phone
                                                                  and book
                               after book about time

                   Water was toxic and dust
                   was kicking up
                   and the town left for another town

    and we are here now
    Making a little image of it

An excerpt from *The Claire Bitch Project*

AuthorTitle

Late to dance class I kicked off my shoes

among the other shoes outside of the studio

it was a pole dancing class and I had signed up for

&nbsp;

two classes back to back two hours the first

hour was choreography and the second was tricks

by the end of the second hour I was very dizzy

&nbsp;

and weak but I had accomplished a new trick

wearing my black vinyl lace-up 8-inch pleaser boots

and I got a good video to prove it I took off my pleasers

&nbsp;

and headed toward my brown Birkenstocks

which I had kicked off outside the studio but what

I found in the place of my Birkenstocks were

&nbsp;

someone else's much older much less cared for

Birkenstocks in the same size same color same style

left in the same location but definitely not mine

&nbsp;

I was crushed I immediately took a picture

of these Birkenstocks and sent them to the studio

owner asking her to send a message to the other

&nbsp;

dancers to notify them that someone with the same

shoes as me had accidentally taken mine and left

theirs behind then I went back into the studio

&nbsp;

and told the instructor what had happened

she said I bet it was Christine since she smoked

a whole blunt before class and she started texting

&nbsp;

other girls to see if she could locate my Birkenstocks

when I got home the owner of the studio had been 

looking through the security footage she sent me

&nbsp;

a screenshot of me taking off my Birkenstocks

before class “Is this you taking off your shoes?”

she said Yes I said and another one of me putting on

&nbsp;

the same Birkenstocks after class That's me I said

but those are not my Birkenstocks you can see

the sole is dirtier on those ones mine are newer

&nbsp;

“I understand” she said she told me that she did not see

anyone else wearing the same Birkenstocks as me

to class in the footage and that the only time

&nbsp;

my Birkenstocks moved was when the studio door

opened and pushed them aside but she promised

she would look through the footage again meanwhile

&nbsp;

I had eaten lunch and laid down on the couch

and was replaying the video of my new trick which

was an aerial ballerina I edited the video and put a

&nbsp;

Doja Cat song over it so it looked really good 

I looked again at the footage sent over by the studio

owner I saw myself staring down at those old dirty 

&nbsp;

Birkenstocks I did not recognize my boyfriend

came home and I told him what happened he was

sorry I lost my Birkenstocks I told him I bet she thinks

&nbsp;

I'm crazy she being the owner of the studio looking

through the footage Do these look like my shoes to you?

I asked holding up the old brown Birkenstocks “Yes”

&nbsp;

he said and then it dawned on me what I had done

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

![image1](/assets/images/issues/issue4/posts/ClaireDougherty-NotMyBirkenstocks/1.png)

&nbsp;

![image2](/assets/images/issues/issue4/posts/ClaireDougherty-NotMyBirkenstocks/2.png)

Not My Birkenstocks

Author_SmallLeftAlignedTitle

###### Lucky Park

The brick is red
The green grass
The picnic rabbit is
crying on my cheek
My cat and I bleed
from the ear
It’s all so colorful
You are a clown
I’m bending backwards

&nbsp;

###### Now We Meet Over the Phone

A light breeze runs through the house
and you turn on the TV
to find out where you are.
Purple is setting over the mountains.
Don't be purple, you’re so
normally easy, though not always
loving. You remember what I say
when I say it loudly
and I am three inches tall,
sharing everything with you
until the space around us
diminishes and we have more of a reason
to say hello. It’s the perfect website.
My background image is of a fire
I drove past. It was active.
It’s still happening now.

&nbsp;

###### Star Person

The town is dressed in dawn, dressed like a dog
In a blue sweater. The blue sweater barks
At the dawn and the people just wake up.
Consider how this might look on another
Species of animal. I am a deer
Separated from his mother, dressed in
Virginal pink because they have this idea
About deer. No I’m a woman, a person
And because of the moon I cannot sleep.
From another room I hear my sister call me
“My sister,” which sounds truer than my name
And stranger. I’m a stranger in this town where
The people have come to watch me answer
But I need to find my mother before I forget.

Three Poems

###### **It is**

difficult to be a chair
and be likeable
She can’t feel her arms
How does she
How does she read a book
Read a book

    *

The house we went to
was not ours but we stayed
because it was sturdy and nobody
else was there

Most of the furniture looked fine
though there were still pieces inexplicable
to me and I liked
to take pictures of myself naked

We waited for raccoons
to reveal themselves in the cypress
proving that everyone has a home
like this and knows
about furniture
Art, how to decorate, and
History

From there we went
through each day as if
Thursday
and eventually stopped
at a new place like I said before
but hoping it would be better

All the houses look the same
I forget how to read
I used to say I miss you and now
I’m sorry I was so mean
and that you’re displeased with
my green curtains

I didn’t want this to happen
for this one reason
which is the chair told me
she whispered to a stranger
don’t turn around
I’m naked so of course
he did and they fell in love

    *

Is anybody house?
Is anybody roof?
Is anybody window?
Is anybody wall?
Is anybody desk?
Is anybody chair?
Is anybody bed?
Is anybody lamp?
Is anybody clock?

    *

And now you are leaving!
This place looks like an Apple Store!
Marry me!
I scratched and sniffed myself bare!
Sit down I decorated!
Over and over!
Watch me be filthy in a glass-walled house!
I might have come!
So I didn’t hear what you said!
My house is full of strangers!
But it’s so easy not to feel!
Trying to find an outlet!
I had two thoughts like two eggs!
I want to be perfect for you!
October took so long to get here!

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

###### **Slushy**

Cool cherry do you think about me?
When I bite my tongue it’s cherry
Crude childhood games
Fall and found us all
Spring
I blame her
The wife
That’s where we came from and
Our father’s age
Was entering heaven
Washing hands incessantly
Looking at you and there are openings
There are
Cherry
Keep quiet
My voice I see now
On the other side is garbled crow
Crows feet laugh lines power lines crow
And the cat who licked my lips
Your assumptions are interesting to me
I’m trying to come
Close my eyes and
Imagine you alone in a foreign place
I want to be overwhelmed
Lose for a moment
Nobody on the streets I like
The fantasy not the product
The time of day the light
And we’ll live in a big apartment
A house it snows
Photos overlap become
Cherry
It’s not that early it’s
Not that early to catch a train the ocean slams
Against my window this makes me nervous
There is space to hide everything
Works out I hope
If I’m never with I’ll never
Be without you
And all the fish rush up to
Nibble on my white ankles

R

E

C

L

I

N

E

R

>

[MENU]