Man who once was a boy on a strawberry farm in Ponchatoula 
loved a curly-haired girl from New Orleans before 

he loved me. When she graduated from her bachelor's 
and him, I took over her lease. No exaggeration. 

I moved into the sketchy green apartment building 
where she had lived. I slept on her left-behind bed. I put my clothes 

in the bureau she didn't have room for in her new 
life. It's dark but I find it hilarious. Like that movie 

where the girl discovers teeth in her vagina 
or the time I stood lurking in the unlit bathroom waiting 

to scare my stepfather before he went to bed. The way 
he grasped the light's pull string and missed as I loomed 

my way out of the dark and he stumbled backwards 
into the bathtub his mouth blubbering out the word: g-g-g-ghost. 

"I got a new roommate, but my roommate's boyfriend 
stayed the same," Courtney liked to joke. Alright alright 

alright drooled Matthew McConaughey from his Chevy 
in 1992. I shrunk my candy-stripe shorts in her apartment 

and they fit her just right. Her dark tight curls. 
Her slim-fit waist. You know that scene in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days 

where Andie stands in a silk dress the colour of molten 
butter, a hundred thousand dollars 

worth of diamond around her neck, 
and I know she's not wearing any underwear 

because she's that kind of Hollywood woman, and in that moment 
my whole self flutters, not knowing 

if I want to be her or be with her, if I want to be crisscrossed 
by yellow ribbons or 

standing in shreds at the top of some stairs 
with my heart spat in my hands. Let me try this all again: 

Man who once was a boy on a strawberry farm in Ponchatoula loved 
a curly-haired girl from New Orleans before he loved me. 

We were same-same but different. I signed the lease 
she had broken and rode that muscular, 

anger shot bull like my life depended on it, 
until the rodeo clowns almost pissed themselves laughing. 

Megan J. Arlett was born in the UK, grew up in Spain, and now lives in New Mexico. The recipient of two Academy of American Poets Prizes, her work has appeared in Best New Poets 2019, Best New British and Irish Poets, The Kenyon Review, Ninth Letter, Passages North, Prairie Schooner, and Third Coast.