Too tender to be out on a school night 
we sang “Red Red Wine” till two, 
drank Zima in October air—

We were not invincible 
but every sip, every inhale meant 
a step closer to dying. Without phones 
or microchips or parents, we made 
mistakes. We overdid it. 

In backyards we played UNO, 
in parks after hours hid from the cops, 
in bedrooms we packed ourselves 
into twin beds, touched ourselves 
to Disney princesses locked in fantasy. 

We forgot we were girls, we forgot 
we liked boys. And we kissed 
like Sharon Stone taught us. In the dark 
we filled each other’s empty places, 
made music with our eyelashes, 
cast spells in a time when 
all anyone believed in was 
not being alone. 

Bernadette McComish

is a poet and educator who holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MA in TESOL from Hunter College. She is the author of a full-length collection of poetry, Prophets of Los Angeles (Los Angeles Press, 2024), and two chapbooks: The Book of Johns (Dancing Girls Press, 2018) and Florence Nightingale’’s Lost Log (Lily Poetry Review, 2021).

Her poetry has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize and published in notable journals such as Bowery Gothic, The Cortland Review, Kali’s Moksha, The Los Angeles Press, Minyan Magazine, Peregrine, The Rising Phoenix Review, Slipstream, Storyscape, Sunday Salon, and Waxing and Waning (print edition, Issue 4: Trauma & Resilience), among others. In 2022, her poem “Letter from the Past” won the Kali’s Moksha Prize in Poetry.

Bernadette teaches high school in Los Angeles, produces the Poetry Brothel Los Angeles, and serves as the immersive events manager at The Poetry Society of New York.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Letter from the Past by Bernadette McComish in Kali’s Moksha (2022 Poetry Prize Winner)

⚡ How to Visit Felix by McComish in The Los Angeles Press (Volume 7, the sacred; Winter 2022/23)

⚡ Four Poems in The Cortland Review (Issue 50, February 2011): “Sleepless”; “Eve”; “Winter”; and “Night Pieces”

⚡ A Psalm of What Happens When I Submit to Love in Sunday Salon (“Spill” issue, September 2010)