Poem in Which You Unfriend the Dead Girl

because what else were you supposed to do
wait for her to check-in at the pearly gates

just because she was your one
cigarette per day that summer

because she grinned like a slinky
could unbutton your jeans without breaking eye

contact you’re supposed to wait – some sailor’s
ghost in your desk chair – the distant creeping of

a newsfeed the crinkled
firmament beneath your skull

Sam Preminger is a trans-nonbinary, Jewish writer and publisher. They hold an MFA from Pacific University and serve as the Editor-in-Chief of NAILED Magazine. You can find their poetry in North Dakota Quarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, Narrative, Split Lip, and Yes Poetry, among other publications. Their chapbook, Cosmological Horizons, is forthcoming from Kelsay Books (Summer 2022). They live in Portland, OR, where they’ve acquired too many house plants.