Better Than Chicago

Danielle Susi

I said I’d never leave
Chicago, what could be better
than Chicago. Than architecture
& mustarded hot dogs & constant whir. Song
of the city. Of catcalls & men
following me onto the bus or off
of the bus or standing too close
waiting for the bus. Maybe
Chicago is just one big bus
where a man looks you in the eye
& lays a knife on his lap. So many eyes
like one big potato. Maybe Chicago
is just one big potato. What could have more gaze
than Chicago. More sight. More survey.
A black rat ran into my black
shoe & I passed it off as reunion
of shapes & sizes. Maybe
Chicago is just one big reunion.
One night where we’re all sitting
under street lamps listening
to the guitars of some distant festival in a park.

© 2019 Danielle Susi

=====

Danielle Susi is the author of the chapbook The Month in Which We Are Born (dancing girl press, 2015). Her writing has appeared in Knee-Jerk Magazine, Hobart, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Her full-length manuscript A River Always Ends at a Mouth, has been selected as a semi-finalist for both the Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize at Persea Books and the Hudson Prize at Black Lawrence Press. She received her MFA in writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently lives and works in Salt Lake City, Utah. Find her at daniellesusi.com.

Read more by Danielle Susi in Rivet.