By Italo Ferrante
after Frank O’Hara
Thank you for watching Food Network with me all night.
Please leave a sticky note whenever you go to the bathroom.
Sorry for hiding behind your legs during fire drills.
Do the Stitch voice and I won’t make your Sim sick.
Teach me how to palm strike before we Eskimo kiss.
Look through my nostrils like an airport scanner.
Flying would be easy if I could sleep under your seat.
Working would be easier if you could email me your breath.
I have been saving the chocolate tips of my Cornettos for you.
I have been heating up your Play-Doh heart to make it soft again.
There’s nothing weird about browsing the NHS website together.
There’s nothing wrong with sharing the same worry tree.
Am I the only man you’d choose over a weighted blanket?
You’re the only man I’d stop picking my cuticles for.
“Lines for Strawberry Fortune Cookies” was originally published in Bloom Magazine Iss.5, May 2022.
Italo Ferrante (he/him) earned a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Warwick. He is currently undertaking an MA in Creative Writing at Lancaster University. To date, his work has been selected for publication by Train River, Nymphs & Thugs, Dreich, Queer Zine, Flash Journal, Reinvention, Poetry Salzburg, Impossible Archetype, and Orchard Lea Press.
