I Want to be a Pink Punk Rocker

Born too late and dyed too blue
To be a pink punk rocker
Ice cold queen with big blond hair
Blondie cutouts in my locker
Let me dance across your back
Stay stunned, stammer, stutter
Eat my stiletto, you filthy pig
Let me fall into the gutter
I am beauty, I am grace
Please show me how to act
I want to be a pink punk rocker
I want to be abstract
You are smooth as butter
Think I’ll spread you over toast
If you’ve believed a word I’ve said
You’re more gullible than most
I feel ten thousand eyes on me
And none of them are kind
I want to be a pink punk rocker
But I’m too far behind
I think too much about the way
I’m seen, discussed, thought of
I’m way too soft to be the kind
of bitch I’ve always loved
I want to be the frost that forms
Atop the grass at dawn
Not the mud that stains the sidewalk
When a heavy rain is gone
I want to be a pink punk rocker
But I’d settle for the rain
Because the rain asks no permission
Before it floods the plain

By Joe Shetina

Biography:

Joe Shetina (they/he) is a writer based in Chicago. Their writing has failed in some of the industry’s finest competitions, having been cited in the top 15% for the Academy Nicholl Fellowship and given semi-finalist status at the 2019 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. They hold a BA in sociology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and an MFA in Writing for the Screen + Stage from Northwestern University, where they also taught Foundations of Screenwriting courses as a graduate assistant.