Liv Mammone: Synonyms for Broken in the Key of Depression

Thomas Tucker

Synonyms for Broken in the Key of Depression

Afraid. Afraid. Advisory. 
Bloody feathers. Dead
finch. Swallow. Adult(eress). 
Nailscratchmoon. No
metaphor. 4 am. 
Asylum night. 
Hysterical. Two
days' unbrushed
teeth. Bi. Goodbye. 
Good Friday. Possum
pissing in Daddy’s bookcase. 
Sober. Sea glass. Stealing
Xanex. Chocolate for
breakfast. Poison. Freed. 
Chest scream. Chewed skin. 
4 showers. Body pillow. Wet
dream. Sallie Mae. Drama Queen. 
Stage door. Gold chain
from a dead girl. Toothless
lioness. No moon. Oldest. 
Dandruff. Dark haired Edward
Hopper girl. Mojo Risin'. Madrid. 
Never redhead. Sleep with the TV. 
Rooster-mad. Harmonica moan. 
Brother. God damn. 
Acne. I can't. Suburbs. Shut
up and dig. Smash
the phone. Home. Unwashed
hair smell. Coming of (r)age. 
Midnight oil. Deathwish. 
Daughter. Separate. Crumpled, 
bloody, first draft mouth.

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Liv Mammone is an editor and poet from Long Island, New York, where she lives with her parents, brother, family of feral cats and geriatric dachshund. She has previously taught creative writing at Hofstra University and Queens College. Her poetry has appeared in wordgathering, Wicked Banshee, the Medical Journal of Australia, Rogue Agent and QDA: a Queer, Disabled Anthology, and is forthcoming in the anthology Grabbing the Apple and Typo Magazine. As a spoken word poet, she has featured at Sip This, Artists Without Walls and Tache Chocolates and is the winner of Union Square Slam’s 2015 Nerd Slam. She is the third visibly disabled poet ever to place as a finalist for a national slam