THE YEAR OF YELLOW BUTTERFLIES
The Year of Yellow butterflies (The Blog)
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"Terrible to dress in the clothes
of a period that must end."--Frank Bidart 

"You must remember that certain things die out for a while/ so they can be remembered with affection later on." --John Ashbery

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Tender Desolations

7/29/2015

2 Comments

 
It was the year I broke my leg by being
So drunk a car ran over me & I didn’t feel it.

The year I had an offer to be a prostitute
As I waited in the hallway at 3rd and 9th
With the door open. 

The year Kathleen Hanna took off 
Her shirt and exposed her perfect breasts, 
Then reprimanded everyone for looking. 

The year, Tim, the guy I had been seeing,
Said he LOVED “cowboy eggs,” so I made them 
For like 2 weeks to please him. There’s a hole
In the middle you make with a small cup--
Like a shot glass, then put the yolk in the hole. 

He broke up with me even though I had
Perfected the technique. It was the year 

Of Blur vs Oasis when Noel Gallagher
Said Damon Albarn & Alex James should
“Catch AIDS and die.”

The year I wore chockers and drank an entire 
Bottle of methadone I had stolen
From a friend. 

It was the year I discovered I had antibodies
For Hep C and slight erosion of the liver.

The year I gave up drinking for pot & had
My first experience with MDMA. 

The year Brittany Spears had a reality show
And I thought, she’s just a nice, down-home
Girl with probably a really pushy mother. 

The year I started Grad school, got certified, 
Fired, and lost my shit.  

The year of electronic town criers, blogs,
Extraverts, and wild kindness. 

--Olivia Grayson

Olivia lives in Brooklyn, where she teaches expository writing and fundamentals of critical reading. She is the author of the chapbooks, Cat Lament and Being Female. 

http://oliviadgrayson.tumblr.com/
2 Comments
Kate
7/29/2015 03:08:02 am

Aren't we all just nice, down-home girls?

K

Reply
Olivia Grayson
7/30/2015 02:57:55 am

In response to K: We are ! (-- many of us with parents who were not very kind).

Reply



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    Author

    Hi. I'm Joanna Fuhrman. This is a prose poetry/flash fiction blog in conversation with my  serial prose poem "The Year of Yellow Butterflies" (The Year Of Yellow Butterflies, Hanging Loose Press 2015). I had fun writing these poems about fads and trends from imaginary pasts. If you would like to add your own section, write me and I can post it (along with a short bio). Start with "It was the year...."  
    "In this extraordinary book, Fuhrman seamlessly oscillates between illusion and reality, childhood and maturity, the animal kingdom (a "babbling...walrus," a "creaky bird," a "bunny rabbit") and technology ("a baby's rebooted brains," "Virgil's internet").  She gives new life to the prose poem.  The Year of Yellow Butterflies is killer--not only Fuhrman's best book to date, but her most poignant.  "--Noelle Kocot

    "With the impish charm of an illusionist and the dazzling patter of a tummler in a Borscht Belt resort, Joanna Fuhrman suspends our expectations in The Year of Yellow Butterflies, sending us head over heels into zones of cosmic and technological bafflement and sudden parabolic grief....in this book full of brilliant predicaments and pleasures."—Rachel Loden
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