New American Best Friend by Olivia Gatwood

Author:Olivia Gatwood
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-943735-14-3
Publisher: SCB Distributors
Published: 2017-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

He merely hoped, in darkness, to smell rain; and

though he saw how still

I sat to hold the rain untouched

inside me, he never asked

if I would stay.

—Rita Dove, Wiederkehr

MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL SAYS

Have you heard this record? Manic Pixie Dream Girl says,

Let me save you with this record.

Let me put the headphones on for you

and smile while you listen. Cut to your point of view

watch me smile as you listen. Hear that?

That’s the sound of you becoming a better person.

I’m gonna paint a picture of a bird on your beige wall

without your permission and you’re gonna love it.

And you thought you hated birds.

See me, encouraging you to take risks?

Manic Pixie Dream Girl wants you to do something

you’ve never done before like smile, or go swing dancing.

You wanna know my name?

You never call me by it anyway.

If I had to guess, it would probably be a season

or after a dead actress who you loved as a child.

But this isn’t about me, this is about you

and your cubicle job, your white bedroom

your white Honda, your white mother.

Manic Pixie Dream Girl says, I’m going to save you

says, Don’t worry, you are still the lead role.

This is your love story, about the way I teach you to live.

Everything they know about me

they will learn when it is projected onto you.

Watch the way you pick up my bad habits

and make them look good.

Manic Pixie Dream Girl talks too much

says bad words out loud and cries at the commercials.

That makes me a funny woman, right?

The kind people like to laugh at?

It’s easy to root for you when I act like this—

so disagreeable, such a manic dream.

Dream Girl, your almost broken accessory.

Manic Pixie Dream Girl says

Let’s play make believe with my body.

I’ll be a vintage dress with an empty prescription

bottle, good girl, just bad enough

a burp

and a curtsy,

let me be not too pretty

hair fried from all of that pink dye

sex when you need it puppet when you’re bored,

let me build myself smaller than you,

let me apologize when I get caught acting bigger than you.

Let me always wait for this, let me work for this.

The convenient thing about being a magical woman

is that I can be gone as quickly as I came

and when you are a whole person

for the first time, the movie is over

Manic Pixie Dream Girl doesn’t go on,

there’s no need for her anymore

Manic Pixie Dream Girl is too dream girl

and you just woke up.

Once, I told you I was afraid

of my father and for a moment, I looked so human

the audience lost interest

you saw the crow’s feet at the sides of my eyes

and a small chip on my front tooth.

I looked just like everyone else.

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