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