103 %
by Ness Joan
Everyday it’s $1.03 to hop on big four wheels
Another $1.03 for a nibble of a hot meal
Maybe decades ago across Gordo, Belmo, Carmen
‘Cross Leo, Bassin
Our grammas scraped for this
That Buck and Three
Everyday felt like 103 cars passing by
Counting how the clouds in the sky
Thinking that was where babies were from
Thinking
Maybe that’s where my baby sister’s gonna come from
I don’t get
that there’s no umbilical cord plugging the psyop drones in traumatized skies. It’s been 5 years and it still shshivers. No place for a baby.
No room for angels
Only for napalm
Everyday I think about the biggest number
20 used to be the biggest number
In K it was 100
Some of us dared to count up higher
To 103
Some of us cheat
Uno Diez
Veinte
Treinta
Cuarenta sesenta
Setenta ochena
Noventa y ciel
Y Ciento tres
Ven, trant
Karant Senkant
Swasant swasanndis
Katreven(vendis)
San San-twa
My gajillion number
How long I want life to span
How much love there can possibly be
103
They don’t make 1:03 on the dot bus drivers anymore
Smiling 103 smiles anymore
Lie against the window, take a 103 minute nap.
Make 103 feel like forever