“Disco Never Dies” © Miranda Schnoor

At a Party in Los Angeles

Anna could have said that
she once dated Tom Cruise
but she knew that no one would believe her.
So she put the name John Malkovich
out there instead,
with a caveat that
it was only once or twice.

The party was dull after all
and the conversation
was on its death bed
so what did it matter if her story wasn’t true.

Everyone looked at her in disbelief.
One or two shook their heads.
She felt small, ashamed.

But then another remarked how she’d once
bumped into Tom Cruise in a supermarket aisle.
Anna felt relieved.
A rule of such affairs is
that a lie’s no longer a lie
once somebody tells the next one.

 

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. He collects those wonderful early issues of Mad Magazine and has ever won any kind of prize involving a pushcart. Nor a push-bike either.

Miranda Schnoor (they/she) is a writer and photographer who currently resides in Richmond, VA. Miranda is a recent graduate of Shenandoah Conservatory, where they received the Bruce C. Souders Prize in Fiction.