Nicole Pero

Brigantine Beach Blues

I feel in me a shuddering hole

formed of broken seashells and boardwalk splinters,

gone too soon for my comfort, I want

to spend days upon days huddled in the ’90s set,

Golden Girls style. Mirrored walls,

glass and white wicker furniture

plus a cruddy pull-out couch.

This timeshare is what’s keeping me whole,

sunburned and laughing at my father

who left the keys in his other swim trunks.

He calls the locksmith, one hundred dollars for

a credit card and a quick jiggle of the knob.

It sounds like the word for mourning

something you haven’t lost yet.


Nicole Pero is a senior at SUNY Geneseo who loves sleeping in, painting her nails, and making questionable financial decisions. She wants to make it to the ripe old age of eighty so she can crochet on her front porch, and screech at anyone within a few yards.