Tommy Pico

The third book in Tommy Pico's Teebs trilogy, Junk is a breakup poem in couplets: ice floe and hot lava, a tribute to Janet Jackson and nacho cheese. In the static that follows the loss of a job or an apartment or a boyfriend, what can you grab onto for orientation? The narrator wonders what happens to the sense of self when the illusion of security has been stripped away. And for an indigenous person, how do these lost markers of identity echo larger cultural losses and erasures in a changing political landscape? In part taking its cue from A.R. Ammons's Garbage, Teebs names this liminal space "Junk," in the sense that a junk shop is full of old things waiting for their next use; different items that collectively become indistinct. But can there be a comfort outside the anxiety of utility? An appreciation of "being" for the sake of being? And will there be Chili Cheese Fritos?

Junk

Lindsay

something needs to come out So it strikes me as funny ha ha funny to gag while trying to stuff someone’s whole Junk in

My safe word is Go to hell Katy Perry pronounced “Catty”

But in the argument’s zenith I’m petty af I

don’t want to be petty I want to be petted as in give me a cat but here we are—

How are the people most fucked by society treated the absolute worst, and those most coddled given the most opportunity How can “happiness” be anything more than a metaphor for privilege

I will stop writing abt the conflict of my body when it goes away

The operative phrase is “dumped” but the operative feeling isn’t “garbage” bc garbage suggests refusal and I

An unfortunate side effect of living is the world doesn’t care

Junk quotes

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