It Could Happen at Any Moment
In the post office. In the grocery store. In traffic. At school. At home. Someone could look at me, and time will slow down. Veins will appear on their foreheads. Fists will tighten. Faces will redden at the sight of my baby blue eyes. At my massive underbite. At how the back of my head looks a little flatter than the average person. And that’s when the chandelier will crash. “Hey, aren’t you Bart Harley Jarvis, former finalist from the 112th Annual Baby of the Year Competition?” No, I insist. No, I persist. I’ve never heard of him, I say, while looking for an exit. For something to defend myself with. For the mace in my pocket. No one cares about what happened to Bart Harley Jarvis after the competition. How he turned his life around after the assassination attempt. How he studied hard in school. How he gives back to the less fortunate. How he’s raised his own adorable babies. All they remember was the red bandanna and the leather vest, and that’s when I’ll have to remember how much of a mistake my birth was.
Alex Carrigan (he/him) is a Pushcart-nominated editor, poet, and critic from Alexandria, VA. He is the author of Now Let’s Get Brunch: A Collection of RuPaul’s Drag Race Twitter Poetry (Querencia Press, 2023) and May All Our Pain Be Champagne: A Collection of Real Housewives Twitter Poetry (Alien Buddha Press, 2022). He has appeared in The Broadkill Review, Sage Cigarettes, Barrelhouse, Fifth Wheel Press, Cutbow Quarterly, and more. Visit carriganak.wordpress.com or follow him on Twitter @carriganak for more info.