Cassette

By Cristina Querrer

Why does my body ache
more than ever now
Not just because I am rounding
the bend yet again
but because I am as celibate
as a moonless, starless sky
I am the cassette tape
snarled and eaten up
in the dusty boom box:
Prince & Michael Jackson
are now dead,
what’s left?

What seems a normal place
is odd to me now
I plan and plan and plan
& then plan to plan
but can’t get out of the basement
of bashed up things—

because he is mad at me
blames me for stealing
& doesn’t want
to ever see me again, again

This is a good time
for abandonment, dear silent,

cold universe with stairs
that go nowhere,
where are you taking me?
Like the twisted cassette tape,
so ceaselessly unwound,
what is the order?





About the author:

Cristina Querrer was born and raised in the Philippines, post-Vietnam War, during the Marcos regime, pre-Mount Pinatubo eruption, as a (US Air Force) military child. She graduated high school from former Wagner High School, Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, in 1985. Her works have appeared in The Adirondack Review, The Fairfield Review, Stirring, and in print anthologies such as Pinoy Poetics, Babaylan, Bombshells, The Mom Egg, and Field of Mirrors. Querrer has two published books of poetry, “By Astrolabes & Constellations” and “The Art of Exporting”. She has an MFA in Creative Writing and is a U.S. Army veteran. Her websites are http://cristinaquerrer.com and http://yourartsygirl.blogspot.com.