Dolly Lemke & Nick Demske

We Should Keep at It

                                          
I’m not sure which part to shit on first
It’s your turn to make jokes
don’t you have a kid and a deep wooded accent

god damn it’s bright in here
you can see every part of my face

if you stood any closer
you might catch it in your pony tail

how many times a week do you eat chicken tacos
i’m a self-loathing marauder so I don’t keep count
with hate on your side it’s never too much
​

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I Love Dolly, I Love Pastrami

The Long Now and Then
was my nickname in high school.

because I used to long now
and now
that’s then.

now then,
when i say “I live on Gentrification Street,”
know that I’m referring to the Blvd. formerly known as MLK.

Then now,
i brought the crime rate down.
i made the arts scene gay


 

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Dolly Lemke lives in Chicago where she works as Assistant Editor of Switchback Books and is founder and co-curator of The Dollhouse Reading Series. Her poems are published or forthcoming in Columbia Poetry Review, Best American Poetry 2010, Court Green, Sink Review, and Salt Hill. Her chapbook, O Town Heights, was recently published by DoubleCross Press. Her current favorite local brew is Daisy Cutter.

Nick Demske lives in Racine and works at the Racine Public Library. His self-titled manuscript was selected by Joyelle McSweeney for the 2010 Fence Modern Poets Series Award and was published by Fence Books. Nick was featured in 2011 as one of fifteen emerging poets to watch for by Poets and Writers magazine and his book was chosen as one of the 10 Best Books of Poetry in 2010 by a Believer Magazine reader survey. This past fall, he completed a month-and-a-half-long book tour that traveled over 10,000 miles across the whole of America. Nick curates the BONK! performance series in Racine, the poetry headquarters of the world. You can visit him online sometime at his blog nickipoo.wordpress.com.