My Body is not a Temple it is a 90s Taco Bell 

by Annie Elizabeth Kreiser

I am not alone in my nostalgic love for

One of the few remaining locations

That is still home

To impermeable upholstery

Hard plastic, soft vinyl

My same bones underneath

A monument to clashing colors

Stubbornly refusing to be stuccoed over

Unashamed of the contrast

Others have moved in then out again

A lot of what is genuinely out there is gone

Succumbed to corporatized safety

All those horrible reclaimed wood walls

They’re a bonfire flaming out

And I am still here

A wacky retro wonderland

As fine a place as any to make out

Or break someone’s nose

Protesting renovation by existence

Surrounded by faux-realism

Unrefined and durable

Annie Elizabeth Kreiser is an angry feminist majoring in secondary education and English. She is also a sophomore and the managing editor for Pitch. Her work is influenced by coming of age as a woman and has been featured in Onyx and Volume 10 of Pitch.