Isolated Incident.

Cops are just like hot girls,

because all of them are out to get me.

Making note of both,

I imagine a bigger audience

that never laughs...

Or at least not

all at once.

Now I’m testing the waters

and the waters are poisoned

and I’m curled up

and waiting for sunrise—

I will show you how to handle the hate.

Miss.

Hello, I’m afraid

of how you make me feel,

with that lasso wrapped tight around my

God.

Now that I’ve quit you, I can’t seem to stop—

you probably have a boyfriend and

I probably have a serious dilemma,

which will probably result

in me earning my place in Heaven.

How could I possibly pray for our sins

if I cannot raise my hands?

This is the last thing I’ll say about it:

you do a great impression of both God and the Devil

and I can’t tell which one is laughing…

The most notable silences are always involuntary and

every heart is shaped differently;

we could hold ours a hair’s length apart.

Nate Hoil is a writer and editor currently squished between the states of Iowa and Illinois. He also runs Secret Restaurant Press, which he founded in 2022.