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Famous / Did I Say The World Was Fair? / Male Privilege Applies To God Too

September 30, 2020/ Su Ertekin-Taner

Famous 

 

Am I a celebrity now? I cried  

When I had placed pink feathered boas around my neck 

I choked on sparkles at the age of six 

Begging for my mom to confirm that I looked like 

Some actress or other 

The pink tights had wound around my legs like ivy 

Up to my chubby waist squeezing in the fat that I was ashamed to have 

Age thirteen was the double digits 

And the double C cup 

Not because I had grown into them but because I liked wearing them 

My first apple phone was meant for pictures I took  

In the too-big bras because I no longer wore the pink feathered boas  

To cover myself up 

Naked was the new fashion  

And models the new celebrities 

Sixteen was when I shed the bra 

Legs wide open sprayed with sugar perfume 

Welcoming the boys who thought they were men 

Humankind turned from human to animal 

Cheetah was the new pattern that  

Celebrities wore 

When seventeen came along I had no more to shed 

So I shed my skin 

The boys had already dissected me like the frog they were told to dissect  

In biology 

So I shed 

Like the boa constrictor I grew up as 

Jaws unhinged to devour the latest tabloids  

Because I lived off celebrities’ style 

Until I too became empty like them 


Did I Say the World Was Fair? 

  

In a properly   

organized   

society   

like ours,   

nobody has any opportunities for being noble or heroic.   

We don’t need human intelligence   

For all men are physio–chemically equal 

But of course, some are more equal than others  

For everybody’s happy nowadays 

Born straight from the depths of a nonexistent heart   

Because, I pledge allegiance to the two-faced liberty   

Of the United States of America 

And to the inhuman race for which we stand 

One nation, under masks, no identification,  

With hallucinogens and slavery for all. 

  

This prayer is for America 

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned 

in this new world I know it’s wrong but, I— 

      INDULGE! 

 

God isn’t compatible with machinery and happiness   

Indulged 

Oh, make me pure   

    Be independent of God!   

Oh, help me to be good   

    A gram is better than a damn   

Forgive me God   

    Progress is lovely. Isn’t it?   

HELL IS EMPTY AND ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE!        

Stop right now! 

You’ve crossed the line so you’re gonna have to turn around  

   Now to return to my subject… 

So…  

You don’t much like civilization?   

Well, “savage” doesn’t care about convention, parameters, or propriety 

  

        They might be killed   

      They’ll be killed if you don’t hurry   

        Help   

              Help   

                  Help   

        They’ll kill him          

Help I need somebody 

We should put them all in the lethal chamber!   

      I like your spirit    

Or strip them to the waist, hit them with a whip of knotted cords   

     One   

          Two   

                                                                      Three   

        Four  

Again  

And Again  

And Again 

And Again 

DO IT AGAIN 

Fuck me up 

Then          HELP HELP   

PLEASE  

FUCK ME UP  

Ladies and gentlemen   

This   

Is  

Fucking  

America  

Take hold of the zipper at her neck and give one long strong pull   

There was of course no one there   

She was empty This is America 

Mask under the  

mask under the  

mask under the   

mask 

I thought that nobody was ever alone here   

But one can’t have something for nothing   

Happiness has got to be paid for   

Did I say the world was fair? 


Male Privilege Applies to God Too 

 

God likes dresses that don’t leave much to the imagination 

Because he likes us better when we’re naked 

Too much fabric can cover up flaws 

No, He doesn’t like that  

 

Bare skin 

Is easier to mold 

Than that covered  

By cotton  

 

God prefers women who like men 

Like they like their Lord 

Worship is not only for the strong He says 

It is for the meek 

 

The women taste better  

When meek 

 

God tastes Mother Earth 

Her rivers are left dry  

Sucked out 

Skies suffocated 

Because He ingested her clouds 

But not the smoke 

Because He is allowed to take his pick  

 

It was no coincidence that God created 

Adam first  

Because 

Women cannot be molded without there 

First being a man 

To create them 

To tempt them 

To crave them 

To devour them 

 

Adam’s ribs 

Were not given to  

Eve’s bosom  

Because of his generosity 

Were they? 

Su Ertekin-Taner is a sophomore, actress, writer, journalist, singer, and informal comedian at The Bolles School in Jacksonville, FL. She began writing poetry at the age of thirteen when she barely knew what the meaning of it was. Now, Ertekin-Taner is an aspiring writer and English teacher with awards for her writing. While she has not won any Nobel prizes for literature, she has received prize money for her poem “Soar” during the Jax Poetry Contest, as well as having received multiple awards from the Florida Times Union, Scholastic, and Florida Scholastic Press Association for her poetry, prose, and journalism.

School Lunch Archive

  • 2021
  • 2020
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Friday Lunch Blog

Friday Lunch! A serving of contemporary essays published the second Friday of every month.

Today’s course:

Behind the Eight Ball: How to Become Homeless in the Richest Country in the World

June 13, 2025/in Blog / Valerie Nyberg
Read more
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Meeting My Child Self at the Trauma Play

May 9, 2025/in Blog / Gale Naylor
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Products of Our Environment

March 14, 2025/in Blog / Mitko Grigorov
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More Friday Lunch Blog »

Midnight Snack

Take a bite out of these late night obsessions.

Tonight’s bites:

Dig Into Genre

May 23, 2025/in Midnight Snack / Lauren Howard
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The dreams in which I’m (not) dying

April 25, 2025/in Midnight Snack / paparouna
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On The Map

March 28, 2025/in Midnight Snack / Ariadne Will
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Amuse-Bouche

Little bites every third Friday to whet your appetite!

Today’s plate:

Tale of the resistant apple tree

June 6, 2025/in Amuse-Bouche / Tahar Bekri, translated by Patrick Williamson
Read more
https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/TaharBekri.jpg 512 340 Tahar Bekri, translated by Patrick Williamson https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Tahar Bekri, translated by Patrick Williamson2025-06-06 11:00:072025-06-17 18:56:48Tale of the resistant apple tree

Talyshi Wall Graffiti and other poems

May 30, 2025/in Amuse-Bouche / Ghazal
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we don’t spend our lives in the belly of the fish

May 16, 2025/in Amuse-Bouche / translated from French by Gabriella Bedetti and Don Boes
Read more
https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/headshot-translator-Gabriella-Bedetti.jpg 400 400 translated from French by Gabriella Bedetti and Don Boes https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png translated from French by Gabriella Bedetti and Don Boes2025-05-16 11:00:362025-07-08 07:33:51we don’t spend our lives in the belly of the fish

More Amuse-Bouche »

Word From the Editor

The state of the world breaks my heart every day. Broken hearted, I stay online. I can’t log off. Because my career and schooling are all done remotely, I tend to struggle with boundaries regarding screen time, with knowing when to break away.

Like many of you, I have been spilling my guts online to the world because the guts of the world keep spilling. None of it is pretty. But it’s one of the things that, having searched for basically my entire life, I found that tempers the chaos that lives rent free inside my head.

More from the current editor »
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