More Featured Works from M. M. Sunderland

Artwork by Co-founder M. R. Pitter.

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Frozen Rum and Pepsi

frozen rum and pepsi
in the freezer overnight
drunken with a
2 pm breakfast

i have
run out of
a one-liter bottle of soda
all by myself
in just one weekend

and i would hardly
call myself an alcoholic
but i have noticed
that i am really reliant on alcohol
in order to be able to flirt

and i don’t usually
drink alcohol with breakfast
but it is so late in the day anyway
and since i’m all out of cola
i’m not gonna be drinking any more rum
anytime soon

it has been
three weeks
into this new year and
i made it my resolution
to be more romantically assertive
and already i have
flirted with one guy per week
with the assistance of alcohol

and no my
resolution wasn’t
to become an alcoholic

i limit myself to
a maximum of
two drinks every other day

and hardly ever
do i reach that much anyway

but i guess i just feel scared
because my romantic confidence is so bad
that already i’m reliant on alcohol to flirt
and i don’t want this to become addiction
but i’m enjoying myself so much

is it wrong
for me to love
what can hurt me

what could so easily
turn into reliance and dependence
i guess what i’m saying is
i know that this is tame compared to
a lot of other stuff
but it would be really great if
i wouldn’t only flirt when i’m drunk

frozen rum and pepsi
in the freezer overnight
drunken with a
2 pm breakfast

i have
run out of
a one-liter bottle of soda
all by myself
in just one weekend

delicious
how
this new year tastes.

So I Spread Butter, Instead

i used to
always eat my waffles
with syrup and peanut butter
but
this week
i decided i didn’t feel like stirring

so i spread
butter, instead

put inbetween
that dollar store bacon
which is of such poor quality
that i have to fry them in oil
other than their own

and i eat
with a cup of coffee
mixed with some coconut vegan creamer
which tastes disgusting

and this morning i
had trouble getting up
because lately i’ve been so tired

but today i told myself
i’m gonna not hit the snooze button
and get up and
make myself coffee and bacon and
blueberry waffles.

not like i can
afford nice food
but
i’ll do the best i can
to have the next best thing.

last night i
told myself

if i go to sleep now
i am closer to breakfast

i used to
always eat my waffles
with syrup and peanut butter
but
this week
i decided i didn’t feel like stirring

so i spread
butter, instead.

Twenty Hours a Day

Twenty hours a day
get ready

buy away my time / i am a product to be used for your wealth /
honey, dear, do you understand what it means to have to buy my own health?
one of my closest friends in the world has crumbled for ever
they dropped sick alone housesitting
and didn’t go to the emergency room in time

they would’ve turned twenty-one
the day before
i attended their funeral
they died just two weeks before my twentieth birthday

wouldn’t it be nice, you know,
if maybe i didn’t have to exchange money for death?
because god how could you ever expect a twenty-one year old
to pay for healthcare fees
thanks for killing my friends, you bastard

Twenty hours a day
get ready

buy away my time / i am a product to be used for your wealth /
honey, dear, do you understand what it means to have to buy my own health?
two of my good friends have died by suicide
one was from high school
another was a childhood friend

just a month ago
they would’ve turned nineteen
just four days after my birthday
he would’ve turned twenty

wouldn’t it be nice, you know
to not live in a world where we have to buy our existence?
i wonder how different things could be if
maybe there wasn’t the constant pressure to be manufacturable

i’d sure love to not have all my friends dying all the time
to pay for everything that makes life worth living

Twenty hours a day
get ready

A Giant Egg Rests

a giant egg rests
at the top of
a mountain

surrounded by a
ring of clouds

unmoving
unhatching
lies still a
villages’ worry

the people scare for a
hail of shells.
one day the mountain will break
and the egg will fall

yet they kept saying
the egg won’t crack.
the upcoming flood
of yolk and egg whites
is just a problem for
another generation

from this egg
no bird will ever hatch.
feathers and claw
will never rise from the depths
only tears of a
nest

so far away from home

one day the mountain will break
and the egg will fall

tumbling down
crashing to the ground
makes no sound but
the muffled drowning
of so many

the people scare for a
hail of shells

yet they kept saying
the egg won’t crack.
the upcoming flood
of yolk and egg whites
is just a problem for
another generation.

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