STILL UNDER SCRUTINY BUT

mistaken report: positive sighting
match crying flint

decades later, big brother is no longer
feared nor acknowledged

the whole big family knows
i am not here

townie bar cctv from 199?
looks better than today

you can tell by the footage
i slide my hands down the wall

all stairs a barrier
yet i effortlessly

enter an unknown car
or house or alleyway

aquanet doesn’t leave stains
but my blue eyeliner shakes waves

when smears are discovered in a suspect’s
car or house or alleyway

the night i was taking shots
the night before i was a miller lite girl

not that i contain multitudes but

maybe some info is missing
it’s not the boyfriend or the ex

maybe these kmart boots
were made for walking after all

maybe you’ll find me
after you excavate the abandoned mall.

miss macross is a Pittsburgh-based multi-genre artist who enjoys watching mecha anime and taking naps. Her most recent chapbook, LATE TIGHT IN A NIGHT SPACE, was published by Alien Buddha Press in 2022. She is the Publishing Director for Write Pittsburgh and inconsistently blogs at missmacross.com. Find her on Twitter/X @missmacross.