all I need's a mirror and I'm a star


portal 2, by Krystine Renee

The Empire's New Outlet
-- by klipschutz

Renewed hostilities broke out today inside a rock. When a rock rolled across the border into neighboring Q-8, only to be forcibly repelled with the aid of round-the-clock infrared laser-guided heat-seeking cruise missiles and 500,000 troops, an embargo was declared on geological activity, sanctions imposed. Deprived of mineral export revenue a rock grew increasingly isolated and ran low on paper and scissors. In seeking out underground catapult facilities, the U.N. Task Force left no stone unturned. The northern part of a rock was declared a no-pitch zone. Upon detection of activity in the bullpen, swift reprisals continued without warning. After unrelated horrible events, newly inducted President Gorge Waterloo Push started an avalanche. Reelected on the strength of the slogan "Comes to Shove," he has not wavered. To muted charges that he has "a rock in his head," he stuck out his tongue and sassed back, "Stones break bones," then appointed an arsonist as fire chief.


Lust Song
-- by Hailey Leithauser

Love’s a blonde gone wrong
on a fogbound ship,

slow off-shoulder slip
of a strap unstrung.

It’s the glib diphthonged,
soft Freudian trip

of disloyal lips,
sight of bright red thong.

It’s dictatorship
of a yielding tongue

still culling the throng,
the blinding eclipse

of faint fingertip,
felt light and not long.


Orgasm
-- by Hailey Leithauser

More than mere spasm
or when focused mind

and game heart combine
as mechanism,

enthusiasm
maneuvering spine

to bliss, realigned.
More like a schism

or charmed sarcasm
at reason’s fine line,

the old soul’s design
for protoplasm’s

iconoclasm,
exquisitely mined.