A TV Writer Gets Her Due by Sera Gamble

I wore a gown

and thanked my dad

who is dead 

but would be proud 

that I won 

enough staring contests

with necktied sociopaths

to buy a house 

and fill the tub 

with health insurance

in the black 

car home, the polished 

god engraved 

with my fake name 

rested on my crotch

like a decisive hand

every man 

who wouldn’t work with me 

sent me bouquets

of elegant snakes

and I sat triumphant

with my trophy, eating 

my own tongue, grateful

that a girl like me

got that one shot 

and all the thousand warnings

not to be difficult.

Sera Gamble’s poetry has appeared in publications such as Harpur Palate, Painted Bride Quarterly, Bodega, Birdcoat Quarterly, Sky Island Journal, Nine Mile Magazine and Typehouse Literary Magazine. She also writes film and TV; most recently, she co-created the series You and The Magicians. Sera is a first-generation American living in Los Angeles.

14 August 2023