Victoria Nordlund
If only I could get my hands on
a Phlebotinum to create you:
Jungian shadow,
soap opera vixen, comic book doppelgänger.
Sprinkle some pixie dust,
create an elixir
to write you into my hackneyed script.
Poof–
us!
The dynamic duo.
Just look at you.
I could make you thinner and taller–
But then we wouldn’t be identical.
I will call you Vanessa, or perhaps Veronica
because those names
are more villainess than Victoria.
I will give you Angelina Jolie’s hair,
a red dress, and false eyelashes
instead of the requisite goatee.
Tell you to pout and smirk,
to savor stepping
on everyone in those stilettos.
Girl, it will always be your party
and you will never apologize
for being extra.
I will hide behind your lava flow
as you devour the earth,
as you carve craters
in the plot,
as you stop shit from halting
by starting some tropey complication.
{insert yours here}
Don’t worry if you don’t know what to say.
I will write all your lines.
You won’t even have to think.
What fun!
You will even do the deeds
I don’t choose to reveal here.
V, we will make the climax epic.
Even better than All My Children.
Ah darling,
This is the perfect plan.
Shh…Come closer and
let me tell you a spoiler:
I needed two.
And when we are held at gunpoint,
when that kind-hearted, sexy detective
has to choose the evil one,
when I try to convince
him of my authenticity,
You will still look beautiful
even after the bullet enters your chest.
***
Victoria Nordlund received her MALS from Wesleyan University. She teaches creative writing at Rockville High School in Vernon, CT. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut. Her work is published in Pank Magazine, Gone Lawn, Eunoia Review, Ghost Proposal, and Amaryllis. She is the 2016 NEATE New England Poet of the Year.