Hold on to Hope, Everybody by Bogdan Dragos

she was the girl who told everybody

to hold on to hope

while she hid in her bedroom

at night and cut herself

She’d pass the razor blade

by the side

of her ankles

and then crouch so as to lick

and slurp

the blood

swirl it around her mouth

until it lost its salty, iron taste

and then swallow

She always wore pants

never a skirt

and she was the girl who

told everybody to hold on to hope

until the last moment

She would climb on the roof

and smoke menthol cigarettes while

watching the stars in the sky

and slowly, slowly drift into touching

herself

I don’t even know her name

but I would like to

ask her

to be my muse

-BOGDAN DRAGOS

Bogdan Dragos supervises casinos for a gambling company, working twelve-hour shifts locked in a dark office full of TV…