After Thierry Mugler by Jo Urtasun

Thierry Mugler died last week and I hate myself.

All I can think about is his Grindr profile,

which a friend showed me on New Years.

I lose my umbrella and buy another. I repeat this

every week through January. My brother says

happiness doesn’t suit her

and walks into the mouth of the subway.

I’ve been making hollow silhouettes of myself

on the bed. I arrange the hangers and wonder

if happiness suits me. I buy

red cowboy boots. Anne Carson reads

in red cowboy boots. I write a postcard

but don’t have much to say about my life in America.

A decade truly starts a few years into itself.

Maybe the same goes for people.

__________

Jo Urtasun is a poet and translator who grew up between the Basque Country and the UK. She recently completed her MFA in Poetry and Literary Translation at Columbia University where she was a translation reader for the Columbia Journal. She is currently based in New York.