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how to be a squid
an ode to tau epsilon phi summer housing

so you wanna swim with the squids, huh?
it’s not for just anybody (but anybody’s welcome)
you need to be ready to bare it all
	not just the skin! but
	      the bones, too
		the stringy flesh that holds it all together, and
	    the mushy threads that operate it

the copley man will ask you, are you getting sick of human beings yet?
and you can answer, why would i? i live with the squids

most days you’ll enrobe yourself in purple
most nights you’ll sleep from the ceiling (like a bat)
(but not upside down) (unless you want to)
the basement has cast-iron skillets 
the roof has a bathtub, and 
the second-back bathroom has two shower heads.
you need to be ready to cook for thirty-five ravenous squids and scream up five floors
D I N N E R ! ! !

the structural integrity of the house is quite sound,
and the sounds are quite loud
on the Fourth of July the fireworks on the Charles River will hit your squid-ears twice
as you huddle together on the roof;
first, when the fire works, and 
again when they reverberate off the skyscrapers behind 
you

how can you be clean without soap?
do you need soap when you swim?

we cuddle in the sex-net
over flames, fragrances, and treasured vacancies
and drink luh, huh, lemonade on demonale
with grables, gronks, and treasured guhms

in august,
under purple skies i said my goodbyes
but if you go back there, 
you can still swim with the squids
Kathleen Nguyen Esfahany
Published in Issue 42