"RUNNING ERRANDS" by Kamden Ishmael Hilliard

Kamden Ishmael Hilliard | MissSettl | Nightboat Books | 2022 | 90 Pages

RUNNING ERRANDS

is greater than walking my woebegoneedness .
But not quite the cow as yt as milk , / the cape
as red as blood , / the hair as yellow as corn ,
the slippahz pure as gold . A put-on pragmatic

as musical theater . No sol’n , neither . Nothing
simple but syrup in the day’s end . O but we
outside the box ! Wine . Knockturn alley sounds
like nocturne alley . Get it ? So , you agree ? You

think you’re really pretty ?????? Well then , you
buy Momdad’s Peter Pan , not JIF . You wait ,
windowless , in the clumsy cable hookup’s
schedule . You soak sober till the sun’s *end

scene* . You listen to Momdad movie quote—
or a bible movie quote Momdad [?]— we do
what we have to do , / so we can do what we
want to do — & always gotta be some bullshit

that want it’s doing . Why else keep on yawning ?
The automatic teller machine machine , the 401K
stomping thru another strictly blasé day ? Until
Until Until— surprise ! my stupid piñata face @

the dance @the gym from the flatfooted dactyls
of dayheadedness . It’s me , the birthday toy ,
Bottoms Up ! , [ made-up gay barre , reader ( obvi ) ],
a case study in cringe , and sixty of our closest

co-conspirators . Having done what I must , I deed
doing to a tenable expression of love . Like ,
if money , then I mean my marks hard . Blood
gone good down the drain’s gulp , which i know

like the sun opening another *scene* . This is not
fire it is
pure
sheen .

"RUNNING ERRANDS" from MissSettl.
Copyright © 2022 by Kamden Ishmael Hilliard.
Reprinted with permission of Nightboat Books.

Kamden Ishmael Hilliard was born in California and grew up in Hawai’i. They are a graduate of Punahou School, The University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (BA, American Studies) and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (MFA, Poetry). Kamden is the recipient of grants, fellowships, and residencies. Kamden prefers Kam and published three chapbooks of poetry prior to MissSettl; they are a board member at VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, the 2020-2022 Anisfield-Wolf Fellow in Writing and Publishing, and reader at Flypaper Lit. Kam can always be found on the internet at www.kamdenihilliard.com. They are currently at work on a second book of poems, a fourth chapbook of poems, and a prose collection.