Poetry by Nicole Yurcaba

Random Acts of Gothiness

A change of speed, a change of style.
A change of scene, with no regrets. — Joy Division, "New Dawn Fades"

I.
Finger cut
                        red water          drip
tissue   suture
                        what  a   glorious              deflowering

II.
The cat            on
            the       sticker
flashes              middle fingers
            the way           my friend
flashes middle fingers
                      to the mainstream.
           Cost of postage: less than fifty cents.

III.
A single bad day
 consumes an entire week,
so I leave a friend
hard candies in a cardboard coffin.

IV.
Jack-o-lantern             lollipops
           for        five      students
of twenty        who     scored
A’s on              this      week’s
literature test.

V.
The raven smiled. He flew three circles
over me as I walked to lunch. I waved,
cried "Hello, old friend." He told me
not to fear.

VI.
Communion After Dark on lowest speaker setting;
a dark chocolate kiss, purple wrapper,
beside freshman papers,
stacked three inches thick,
screaming
 Grade me!

My Depression: Side A

Track 1: Covenant—"Dies Irae"

            synapse            delay
 askew             chemicals
                                                bombardment
tonight            nihilism
            patchouli-scented
                                     lingers

Track 2: Joy Division—"Twenty Four Hours"

"blankness" is today’s moniker              translucent
white    counted            singly    or in   two sets
             of twelves  three sets of eight
four       sets      of         six         easily divisible
 vice      versa    counted
                         this                   way
any        way                 simple multiplication
     doesn’t         solve    complexity

Track 3: The Cure—"Strange Days"

rain strums
      pine branches         soft bounce
up        down     up       returning
     still

Track 4: Marilyn Manson—"Unkillable Monster"

i’m the spirit trapped in a smeared self-portrait
notice slight smears unlikely-to-vanish streaks
gray-circled eyes undead i’m the creature
jagged parts mismatching non-meshing
stitched sutured cauterized raggedly
let there be scars

Track 5: The Smiths—"How Soon Is Now?"

some inheritances don’t harbor rubies emeralds
amethysts         diamonds           golden
purity       smelted         some  inheritances
            bear        silver                tarnished
exposure           eroding  sterling

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Nicole Yurcaba, a Ukrainian-American poet and essayist, teaches in Bridgewater College’s English Department, where she also serves as the Assistant Director to the Bridgewater International Poetry Festival. A lover of all things dead, dark, and beautiful, Yurcaba’s work often blends elements of depression, death, Ukrainian mythology and history, and Slavic Paganism into verse to create worlds others might not consider.