Favorite First Lines • Allie Marini Batts

So smudge me out, a hum his ear,
Jack-and-ginger drunk, dizzy cold
swaying in the parking lot.

This is the only story I know:
Hangover breakfast—aspirin and black coffee
on the fly—walk-of-shaming last night’s heels back home.

I rose from bed a watering hole, the opening line to a story
I don’t know yet—Why would I smudge you out, he said,
when I can’t even see your edges?

So smudge me out, a hum his ear; this is the only story I know.
I rose from bed a watering hole: this opening line.


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Allie Marini Batts holds degrees from both Antioch 
University of Los Angeles and New College of 
Florida, meaning she can explain deconstructionism, 
but cannot perform simple math. Her work has 
been a finalist for Best of the Net and nominated 
for the Pushcart Prize. She is managing editor 
for the NonBinary Review of Zoetic Press, and 
has previously served on the masthead for Lunch 
Ticket, Spry Literary Journal, The Weekenders 
Magazine, Mojave River Review, and The 
Bookshelf Bombshells. Allie is the author of 
the poetry chapbooks, "You Might Curse Before 
You Bless" (ELJ Publications, 2013) "Unmade 
& Other Poems," (Beautysleep Press, 2013) 
and "This Is How We End" (forthcoming 2014, 
Bitterzoet.)