identities are sometimes seasonal
you shouldn’t buy peaches in winter;
it’s hard to be a goth in the summer time
black velvet skirts and the steel-boned corsets
I got from eBay,
a layer of thick white foundation from Bernard’s –
I discover that record stores are inherently sweaty places.
my American friends on vampirefreaks.com
are photographing themselves in the snow
writing poetry in it
and I get into a phase of only wearing white
because of something I heard on The Sopranos
about death.
I document my poetry online
I make a Yahoo Geocities account
four words four underscores
an ellipsis that lasts longer
my html is badass
my background is #000000
my fonts are Creeper and Lucinda Handwriting
because I am dark but also fancy.
it’s easy to be a goth in the summer time
‘cause I’ve got dial-up internet
and white is much better at reflecting heat.
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Jessica Alice is the co-director of the National Young Writers Festival and is the poetry editor for Scum. She co-presents the Kill Your Darlings podcast and produces Australia’s longest running women’s current affairs radio show, 3CR’s Women on the Line.
Image: Evelyn Flint