Hangover is a satire
with satyrs perhaps
interpolating Bataille's
solar anus, but peace
be unto my enemies
and thunderbolts
be damned for I am
reading Juvenal's sixth
and admiring the women
who enchanted language
while brewing magic potions
to drive their husbands
batty. There is so much to be
said for turning men inside out
and leaving them totally
bonkers. There are loads
to fete in fogging their
brains and stealing the
prior night's memories,
an act which amounts
to a loss so profound
that your man might
call it a blackout. The
delirium of free tequila
pours its cold part
into the overhang's
plot. The seventh
however is pointless.
###
Obsession pulls me back into proximity
the room is emptier and more available
during lunch I can't quit thinking
how a hand falters
before reaching the hip
nymphs are fluent
in making themselves adorable trees
"certainly the crotch is light," as Frank O'Hara
noted but the tulips can't help themselves
all crimson and fuschia their cheeks
spiking their brain waves
likening the hand to literature
when the sun reaches out and
touches their stamens
we all have a little part in us
devoted to standing upright
behind the bright pageant
of our clothing
we all have a song by Mingus
and an old secret
longing for that emboldened
lightning bolt most certainly
the curse of an insecure god
brings out the asterisks
in your eyes and the stars
and the stars so adroitly scripted
I smile when the echo strikes me
###
Alina Stefanescu was born in Romania and lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her partner and several intense mammals. Recent books include a creative nonfiction chapbook, Ribald (Bull City Press Inch Series, Nov. 2020) and Dor, which won the Wandering Aengus Press Prize (September, 2021). Her debut fiction collection, Every Mask I Tried On, won the Brighthorse Books Prize (April 2018). Alina's poems, essays, and fiction can be found in Prairie Schooner, North American Review, World Literature Today, Pleiades, Poetry, BOMB, Crab Creek Review, and others. She serves as editor, reviewer, and critic for various journals and is currently working on a novel-like creature. My Heresies, a poetry collection was published by Sarabande in late April 2025.