I’m looking for the order of things I’m playing tic tac toe with the universe we’re stalemated we’re soulmated we’re Very Busy today I’m late for my appointment that I keep purely for decoration I press the buttons and get an error message saying sorry sucker try again I report the message as rude but nothing comes of it how rude I whisper to my amazon echo and suddenly jeff bezos’s at my door offering discount health insurance which sounds good until I read the sneaky little clause about donating my brain to amazon before or after I die and I laugh at little jeff saying sorry sucker I’ve got you this time I’ve finally got the upper hand this ol thing is a lemon and we laugh together on my front porch I whisper to my echo get him out of here and by god it works and by god something’s heard me and by god something’s gone as planned and I press my little pinky to my heart and sure enough the echo was wrong my heart skips its beat and my brain sucks it in and back out again in a huff and sure enough I’m calling out to jeff’s chemtrail taking it all back I’d love your special health insurance jeff I’ll take anything

Olivia Muenz is an MFA candidate in creative writing at Louisiana State University. She received her BA from NYU and is currently the Nonfiction Editor for New Delta Review. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Black Warrior Review, Anomaly, Denver Quarterly's F I V E S, The Boiler, Pidgeonholes, Heavy Feather Review, Timber Journal, Peach Magazine, Stone of Madness Press, ctrl+v, and Bed Zine. Find her work at oliviamuenz.com.

Laurence Philomène (Lost in a blizzard, January 2019) is a photographer based in Montreal, Canada. Laurence makes colorful work that centers queer and trans experiences, often through long-form and autobiographical projects. Laurence’s work is informed by their lived experiences as a chronically ill, non-binary transgender artist coming of age amid the rise of social media. Since gaining an interest in image-making in their teenage years, they have used photography as a space to investigate masculinity and femininity, exploring how the two can co-exist outside of the binary. With high-saturated, cinematic and caring images, their work celebrates trans existence, and studies identity as a space in constant flux. You can find them on Instagram at @laurencephilomene.

This poem was originally published in Salt Hill 45.