Simone Liggins earned her MFA in Writing at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics of Naropa University. The foundation for her love of writing and literature was paved at an early age and blossomed during her teenage years through the kind of tortured freedom that only the ostracism of high school can grant a person. Her various influences include but are not limited to: Sylvia Plath, Kurt Vonnegut, Dorothy Parker, Audre Lorde, Lenore Kandel, Laurell K. Hamilton, Octavia Butler, The Beatles, Lady Gaga, Fiona Apple, and Jimi Hendrix. Her work has been featured in Raven Chronicles, Buddy—A Lit Zine, BEATS Poetry Periodical, Boulder Weekly, Outsider Poetry, SurVision Magazine, Reject Press, and Petrichor Magazine.

Autonomy in a Pill

It is what it is.
You track my life and
every day of every month
becomes a bubbled tick mark.
Pop Wednesday, pop Thursday, pop Friday—
my wood-nymph freedom is granted.
You’re too strict to forget.
Each morning, at home on the sink’s edge
you’re the first thing in sight, first thing in mind,
catching more eyes than the Gaga-singing toothbrush.
The savior from more tragedy, O mighty pill of Venus,
I’m not your only disciple, for his sanity
holds firm with each pop-punch through the seal.
Pop Saturday, pop Sunday—
no one’s too proud to beg
once your blessing is planted.
Pop Monday—
No shame blamed
for protected affection!
Pop Tuesday—
Wash, rinse, repeat…