Some Answers May Appear More than Once, Others Not at All
by Lauren Goodwin Slaughter
List of words in phrases are in a box in three columns.
Line 1: My children, Friend who ghosted, Severance
Line 2: Secret parking spot, Adderall,Bob Ross
Line 3: Scrolling IG, More camp forms, Rosy-fingered dawn
Line 4: God, Another podcast, Dead Dad
Line 5: Missoula, O2 machine, Still sleeping
Line 6: Weighted vest, Roswell, Observation selection effect
Line 7: Mother, Something bigger than me, Freezer vodka
Line 8: Pattern recognition, Spaghetti at the airport, Plato’s Cave
Line 9: Cancer fears, Thing, Dalessandro’s cheesesteak
Line 10: Bread-making husband, Strawberry Shortcake, Impossible
Line 11: Jasper the cat, The collective unconscious, The Duomo
Line 12: Block design test, Refusing to cook, Pavarotti’s high B
Line 13: Perpetual wonder, Lenticular cloud, Milk boxes in kindergarten
Anthropomorphic test dummies or from another realm?
A fancy cocktail party but everyone just shows up in sweatpants.
Losing the feel of _________’s big dry hands warming your always-freezing ones.
Every year _________ is required, though there seems to be no variation.
The reason you got this minivan is fitting it all in plus screaming.
Try setting an alarm to remind you of every moment in your day.
Still not hungry for _________. Or _________, or _________, or _________.
That superhot shirtless guy always running through the neighborhood.
If _________ doesn’t seem to help, try microdosing Psilocybin?
Said: This is your world, you’re the creator […] believe that you can do it, and…
If _________ is true, you idiot, _________ must be true also.
Your sister calling exactly as you pick up the phone to call her.
Nobody understands how anesthesia works?
Term for the solid execution of a daughter’s 10th birthday party.
Wishes you were more Jewish or could at least recite the blessing.
Sounded good when suggested but now _________ feels like a chore.
Another alarm to stop moving and _________ for exactly three minutes.
Obsessively searching for _________ despite demonstrated pointlessness.
For all that is sacred and holy, never put _________ in a paper bag.
So lonely at this work function trading Netflix suggestions.
Nothing on the faceless wall. Then a fire behind you starts raging—
Said you should be a diplomat or maybe try the Coast Guard.
Until you saw ___________ existed, how could you know you needed it?
Solution: clone ___________! Break the vacuum searching for a whisker.
Will never not correct your grammar—even in a text.
Out of absolutely nowhere, the scent of _________ from childhood.
Sneak into _________’s rooms to watch them sleep. See only Nike socks and chargers.
In _________, summer storms mean lightning mean breathing burnt Ponderosa.
The familiar sound of _________. But, nope. Couldn’t be?
Explains one only perceives the shapes one already believes in.
In the kitchen dancing the prisiadki to Eminem’s “Rap God.”
Breathe, eat, urinate crossed off of the to-do list (who dis?)!
Then showed up at your doorstep with a succulent in a tiny clay pot.
Sure, the tickets were expensive—but totally oh-so-worth-it.
Craving red dirt and _________ throughout each of your three pregnancies.
Visible only in regions free from light pollution.
Perfectly poached eggs—brown toast soaked with bright yolk.
_________’s still swerving down some highway if time is just a construct.
If time is just a construct, you’re not embarrassingly _________.
… Clouds could very well be the freest _________ in nature.
A run at the break of _________ , the _________world still _________.
