Inventory, June 2018

because Sam Hunter Mercer

I cut my nails more often than I gnaw them off these days/ my cuticles are still a bleeding mess//I’ve moved an average of every two years since I left my childhood/ everyone still thinks my life is too messy// I just think of the years I spent/ chasing my favorite bands/
in complete dedication/ bliss/ put memories over matter// I’ve improved my credit/ and/ learned not to take the bait/ when she calls/ or to take myself to therapy/ when I feel out of control/ and/ I know how to meditate/ before I send a text message// I may have impulse control problems/ I can acknowledge my problems now/ I’m comfortable talking about them or/ helping you talk about yours/ if that is what/ you need/ I will never drive a car/ I have managed to see more of this country/ than I ever dreamed of// I pay for my own dental work/ and three hundred dollars worth of/ medication a month/ and can sit in the Social Security Office for hours/ without anyone holding my hand// I repair and rekindle friendships/ and the result of some of these rebirths are children who call me Auntt// My friends are comfortable enough to tell me about/ the drugs/ they are trying on/ the people/ they are sleeping/ with// Even though I am/ a poet/ no priestess/ or lawyer//

By SaraEve Fermin

Biography:

SaraEve is a performance poet and epilepsy advocate from northeast New Jersey. A 2015 Best of the Net nominee, she has performed for both local and national events, including the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Los Angeles 2015 Care and Cure Benefit to End Epilepsy in Children and as a reader for Great Weather for MEDIA at the 2016 NYC Poetry Festival on Governors Island. She is the author of You Must Be This Tall to Ride (Swimming With Elephants Publishing) and View from the Top of the Ferris Wheel (Clare Songbirds Publishing House). She loves Instagram: @SaraEve41