Two Serious Ladies is named for the 1943 short novel by Jane Bowles.

“I have my happiness, which I guard like a wolf, and I have authority now and a certain amount of daring, which, if you remember correctly, I never had before.”


― Jane Bowles
Two Serious Ladies

 

Three Poems by Rebecca Farivar

Ruins

Everyone is getting engaged
at the top of Machu Picchu.

It’s so romantic and terrible
starting something new

on what they think is the top
of the world, but is only the top

of a mountain. Pizarro never
would have won without

the help of jealous tribes. Nonetheless
it’s impressive. All those rings.  

Sneeze

No one says bless you anymore
because it doesn’t matter.

There’s no soul coming out
your nose. It’s so hard

to wake up and go
to the store. It’s exhausting

being bored and trying
to speak. The world is noisy

even on Sundays. Everything’s open
and parking isn’t free.  

White Bread

Eggs used to be bad.
Now they’re good

like how mangoes
are hot and sushi

is clean. The grains
are plump and no one

eats them. If you do
you have bad parents.  

Rebecca Farivar is the author of Correct Animal (Octopus Books, 2011) and chapbooks Am Rhein (Burnside Review, forthcoming 2013) and American Lit (Dancing Girl Press, 2011). She holds an MFA in poetry from St. Mary’s College of California and hosts the poetry podcast Break The Line.

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