Content Warnings (click to reveal)
Sexual violence, animal cruelty, eating disorders (discussed)
Breadcrumbs (noun) bred-krəms
So, this is the way it is. I am a pigeon
begging for crumbs from your pastrami, pickle &
cream cheese on rye. One day I might grow
teeth and bite off enough to sustain me.
Ho—I am a bitch: a toy strung along
on a short leash. Ridiculous plaything—
plastic puppy on wheels—leaking
affection from my slinky torso. Prone
to toppling over. Stretched and hollow,
tenuous as a continuous curl of apple peel.
No, it is 1958 and I’m one of Harlow’s rhesus macaques.
I have been spared his charmingly titled “Rape Rack”
and “Pit of Despair”. But I am part of the “Cloth Monkey
vs Wire Monkey” experiment. An exemplar for this
attachment theory.
Your crumbs aren’t so bad. I gobble them up—conditioned
like a starving orphan. Greedy. Gluttonous. Grateful.
Please, Mother Lover, may I have some more?
Yes—there is no doubt
I am the
gimp
chump
chimp
Every Sha-la-la-la, every Whoa-wha-oh
She greeted me at a foreign airport
where I’d been frantic—stranded overnight.
But you're not really here, it's just the radio…
The familiar comfort of The Carpenters
piping softly over the loud-
speakers flooded me like an insulin
hit diffusing my spike in anxiety
…back again just like a long-lost friend…
Feeling lost and like the city seem[ed] to be
without a friendly face, a lonely place…
home took the shape of a pale slip of a thing—
doe-eyed, all teeth and locks, with a voice
like a lovechild between silk and velvet.
On the day that you were born, the angels got together
and decided to create a dream come true…
A discreet visitor slipping into the score
of my life, quietly leaving quavers of casserole
on the counter for me, Karen provided nourishment
without demanding perfection of a quite imperfect world.
I’d turn to her for kernels of hope—fresh
popped and drenched in buttery vocals.
She made Rainy Days and Mondays more tolerable.
Karen would have made a good hostage
negotiator. Tomorrow may be even brighter
than today. Desperate as she was,
she had the kind of voice
that could pull people
down from the edge.
The Carpenters lyrics: ‘Superstar’, ‘Yesterday Once More’, ‘I Won’t Last a Day Without You’,
‘Close to You’, ‘I Need to Be In Love’, ‘Rainy Days and Mondays’, ‘Only Yesterday’
Paris Rosemont is a multi-disciplinary, multi-award-winning Thai Australian writer and author of poetry collections Banana Girl and Barefoot Poetess, shortlisted for awards in Australia, Greece, UK and USA. The latter was awarded Distinguished Favorite in the NYC Big Book Awards 2025. Her chapbook >>glitch<< was released in 2026.
Paris’s poetry has been published in a plethora of literary journals and anthologies worldwide, including Australian Poetry Journal, Rabbit, Splinter, and Sky Island Journal. Winner of the Matthew Rocca Poetry Prize 2025 and longlisted for the Blake Poetry Prize 2026, Paris is also a critic for Mascara Literary Review, Guest Editor for Written Off Literary Journal, sits on the Hunter Writers’ Centre Board, and is Chair of a Judging Panel for the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards 2026. She is currently working on her debut novel, Bruised Fruit, exploring diaspora, desire, and cultural inheritance.
Find Paris on Instagram @msparisrose or via www.parisrosemont.com
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