China Doll
for Ashley Karwasinski

“Wild Horses” was playing through
the speaker of your cracked iPhone

while you poured the last of your Tito’s
in to-go cups we took from work

then showed me a picture of her
you were only eleven

just a child and her horse
when things were a lot easier to hurdle

and told me that if you
closed your eyes just right

there weren’t any pills or powders
any breakups or invisible scars

any empty bottles
or sad country songs

it was just you and her
and any goddamn sunset you wanted

welcoming you both
to ride off into.

Apartment Karaoke
for Katie Galanakis & Mattea Ardizzone

They say the world
is coming to an end
sooner rather than later
and I’m sure they’re right
but tonight is apartment karaoke

after another double at the restaurant
after another missed family gathering
after another order ticket stabbed
for people more comfortable
than any of us will ever get
the chance to know

you let your hair splash
along your shoulders
while you sing to the company
of insomniacs and dreamers
burnouts and believers
with Whitney Houston’s
“I Want to Dance with Somebody”

as your voice carries through
the cloudy living room
like confetti in the wind

celebrating another night
we all forget about death
for just a little while.

Cord Moreski is a poet from the Jersey Shore. Moreski is the author of The News Around Town (Maverick Duck Press, 2020), Shaking Hands with Time (Indigent Press, 2018), and Stay Afloat Inside (Indigent Press, 2016). He was the host of the New Jersey poetry series Words on Main and the virtual poetry series The Couch Poets Collective. When he is not writing, Cord waits tables for a living and teaches middle school children that poetry is awesome. He is currently working on several new projects for 2022.