Jordan DeBor

RED PHOSPHORUS



I was once in a kool aid commercial

I'm sure you all saw it

I was skateboarding and biking

and pretending to have fun

while drinking the kool aid

and pretending to be happy

while drinking the kool aid

and pretending to be American

while drinking the kool aid

and pretending not to be upset

when the wall burst open

and the kool aid man wasn't there

I wish I was alive in 1978

when the kool aid man

was as real as red phosphorus

I’d be the only one left

Still drinking the kool-aid

---

PHOTO BOOTH VACATION



lets take a photo booth vacation

we can go anywhere

we can be on the moon

and look back at our home

or we could ride a roller coaster

and pretend we're having fun

or we could go to Paris

and destroy the Eiffel Tower

or we could find ourselves as fishes

and relearn how to breath

or we can just be here

in our rooms

separately together

lets make believe

---

MAGNANIMOUS



How many stars will we call "sun"

How many planets will we call "earth"

Will the moon remember us

When we abandon her

And all the bones that the sun graced with cancer

Will they be jealous of us

When we die so far away from them

What will our mothers say

When we don't come home



I will one day be the sun in your eyes

The heat of an afternoon

The warmth of so much skin

The fire in your guts

And i will one day be the cancer

That will tear you apart

As I shine so fucking bright

So very far away

Jordan DeBor is an editorial assistant at PEN American Center. He has previously done editorial work for BOMB Magazine, Open City Magazine and Books, and ClusterMag, and co-edits Noncanon Press. He graduated from Hampshire College with a B.A. in American Literature and Literary Theory. He was born in London and splits his time between Sydney and New York.