FUTURE ALIEN BARBIE
A poem.
A few weeks ago, Vogue sent an email blast about Kim Kardashian’s new beauty vibe: “future alien Barbie.” I wanted to write about it, but… what else is there to say, really? In lieu of a newsletter, I present: a poem comprised of copy-and-pasted subject lines and sentence fragments, each pulled from a different email I received that same day — sent by news outlets, by newsletters, by beauty brands, by PR reps, by colleagues. A snapshot of the times. (You can read previous “inbox poems” here, here, here, and here.)
FUTURE ALIEN BARBIE
“Future Alien Barbie”
is the opposite of
Present
human being and
Apologies if I have already written this! But
isn’t that
The point of this whole
Wild
precious
brutal
fragile
magic
meandering
life?
The vision people seem to have of
a future
formulated without
wrinkles, fine lines, and crow's feet
Thanks to These Anti-Aging Skincare Products
—the boringness of it!
I’m tired of female pain and also tired of people who are tired of it.
maybe you are also screaming
yeah you're gonna be just fine writing that book. this is fucking brilliant.
Thank you for enduring and digesting this mess for us. Honestly it makes me feel despair.
In response to your poem, I felt my own poem bubble up. I love writing poetry but don’t do it often enough.
Do whatever the fuck you want with your body and face in space and time
if it liberates you and brings you joy especially if it fills you with a glow
that spreads to your every cell
and reminds you of your aliveness
Thank you for inspiring a little poem (which I shyly shared), and thank you, as always, for the obvious effort and thought you put into each newsletter and poem.
I love that your writing makes me think more broadly and deeply and that I feel connected to a community, small yet mighty, that is radically opposed to this bizarro part of our culture.