Two Poems
FAMILY TRIP (FLORIDA)
Bottle of blue shampoo
hair on the pillow
at the Embassy Suites
a pair of swimming goggles
a feeling that goes rising
like fuzzy tasting eggs even
the water here is different
my thoughts are like palm trees
I can’t move with my fork
BRUCE ALMIGHTY (2003)
Jennifer Aniston eats ice cream like an angel
Her eyebrows are perfect, the color of pencils
She works at a preschool because she would make a good mother
She has mastered the art of the somewhat clingy t-shirt
She waltzes through life in ladylike pajamas
Bruce is a real goofball
But also kinda depressed
He complains about God
Only God is Morgan Freeman!
They meet up in a warehouse
But Bruce is unconvinced
Until a file cabinet goes on forever
Revealing Morgan Freeman’s powers
Now it’s Bruce’s turn to be God
There’s a terrible green screen of him walking on water
Bruce pulls the moon closer
He parts his soup like it’s the red sea
Danger is a brunette named Susan
At a party, everyone gets what they want
But no one knows what they want
Just like in real life!
When Jennifer Aniston finds Bruce kissing Susan
She yells, “I just want a big boat with lots of money”
I used to yell that, too
Walking around the house in my tap shoes
Jennifer Aniston is like what if a beam of light
Became a cable knit sweater and hugged you?
For 70% of my childhood, Bruce Almighty was my favorite movie ever
Geese fly in romantic formations
A lady walks on your back and it’s a massage
Life is so much about getting your dog not to pee on things
I am probably too selfish to save the world
My dream is a tree-lined street
And jogging down it
Wearing an umbrella hat
Luciana Arbus-Scandiffio
Luciana Arbus-Scandiffio is a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She holds an MFA in poetry from the Michener Center for Writers and a BA from Bennington College. Luci has two lesbian moms, and is originally from New Jersey.
Jennifer Sullivan
Jennifer Sullivan is a painter who lives and works in Ridgewood, Queens, whose studio-based painting practice evolved from earlier autobiographical performance and video-centered work. She has often described her paintings as a diary and a form of psychoanalysis. Jennifer Sullivan received her BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY and her MFA in Fine Art from Parsons School of Design, New York, NY. Recent solo exhibitions include Original Face at Deli Grocery Gallery, Ridgewood, NY (2022), Sleeper at Turn Gallery, New York, NY (2021), Devotional Paintings at Julius Caesar, Chicago, IL (2020), Exiled Parts at No Place Gallery, Columbus, OH (2019), and the soft animal of your body at Emma Gray HQ, Los Angeles, CA (2018). Sullivan has exhibited widely, including exhibitions at NADA Miami, Peter Blum Gallery, Marinaro, Brennan and Griffin, Rod Barton, Marvin Gardens, Safe Gallery, Klaus Von Nichtsaggend, and the deCordova Museum. Awards include fellowships with Paint School at Shandaken Projects (2020) and the Fine Arts Work Center (2012-13), and residencies at the Lighthouse Works, the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, the Ox-Bow School of Art, and Yaddo. Her work has been reviewed in the NY Times, the Brooklyn Rail, and Art Papers.