nina’s gun
- Author or artist: Vanessa Mata
- Publication: Pointed Circle
- Year: 2026
- Author or artist: Vanessa Mata
- Type: Poem
my ugly feelings run wild. like children at a restaurant: screaming, crying
as if it鈥檚 the end of the world. is it not? all three of my friends i still talk to
say they can鈥檛 leave the house without wanting to cry, or that community is just
one more unkempt room in the house of the collective unconscious. who wants to
touch a bird with a bloody hole in its stomach, pick it up and let it die on the
palm of their hand? my favorite people will do it, even give them flowers in
the backyard, a proper burial. others will run it over, try to flatten
it into the concrete. like they do everything else. it鈥檚 not that they want to,
i tell myself, but it鈥檚 all they know. condescending bitch, the other voice
says, slinging rocks at the glass cabinet where i keep my love for them for fear
i will lose it. how do you write a poem when you know what you have to say?
i鈥檓 not subtle. not nina begging not to be misunderstood, but more like the
nina music guy tells me about: pulling the gun on the record exec that
stiffed her. hysterical, he hints, but in her sharp edges, i understand kin.