Winning Campaign, a poem by Karthik Purushothaman

I wear 140 characters
as pinstripes and say
what I think

without thinking.
My superpower is fitting
both feet in my mouth

and projectile vomiting
the stuff between my toes.
I save the reporters

from jumping off buildings,
leaping across canyon
-deep cracks and swimming

upstream to the source
where the current is strongest
and I am the current

world record holder
for the tallest bungee-jump
into a smoldering hot

Geisha, doing three and a half
twirls on the way down
3D-printing

Escher knots
with my throw-up,
bringing samurai swords

to gunfights, and writing
the book of moonlight
so vote for me.

 


Karthik Purushothaman hails from Chennai, India, is currently an MFA candidate at William Paterson University of New Jersey, and reads submissions to Map Literary. His work has recently appeared or will soon appear in SubtropicsRattleThe Common and elsewhere.