stop sending me articles to read

man in the house by the sea
you served us coffee in tiny cups
with your favorite people on them
my friend
and your house 
with the balcony and the sea

and the dumpling shops with good food
and strange hours

you and your girlfriend eat there
while she watches you and i see
she knows your fuse as well as i

man in the house by the sea
you set traps for me the same ones as always
and i fall into them 

you’ve proven you can win 
chess and an argument

and i too live in a foreign and sad
room
lit unevenly
by
strange
windows

with anonymous people 
shuffled around me
like cards drawn at random

so i can understand 

kind of 

but damn

can’t you ask me about how i am
before we talk about venezuela?

Arlo Elliott is an aspiring poet from California who enjoys modernist poetry, dank memes, politics, philosophy, the National Basketball Association, therapy, and cats.