I Hope You're Happy: A Novel

This month we're featuring vol. 4, no. 2 as part of our Fall Back Sale event. Today the spotlight is on Molly Brodak's poem, "I Hope You're Happy: A Novel." Here is an excerpt.

1: IN WHICH THEN MAN SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF.

But when I said this is a rare girl
I meant like raw. It's not a dream.

2: A PATERNAL CONCERN.

Dear son,
I waited on the hill between an S of white mares
and a hot green Mountain Dew bottle, hard grass stubble
against my legs, reading, waiting, and you brought me her
only photo and she was making dirty eyes

3: IN WHICH THE GIRL DISCLOSES.

The history of our last night:

You don't know my eyes are open.
Sixteen minutes later I am in a weird court,

my calf is against your shin as we sleep.
What if I have a bat for a heart?

So I grew pines there and haunted them
with owls. That was me 136 years ago.

At seven we are asleep while downstairs
someone complains of person-shaped lights.

Outside, horses.
There is no new night.

To read the rest of "I Hope You're Happy: A Novel" and to check out all the awesome fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, pick up a copy of vol. 4, no. 2 in our webstore. To get it for $5.95, choose, "sample copy, editor's choice" and enter "fall back sale" in the special instructions box.