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a journal of contemporary politics, culture, and Jewish affairs at Columbia University
//creative//
Fall 2020

Tall N Lovely
Olivia Luther
​

im walking down the street one day a man says i have nice legs
i tell him to take them but he does 
i hop in an uber now that im legless, find then explain to you that a man took my legs and it is my fault 
you wonder how i can exist without any legs 
i ask can i borrow one of yours? so that i can go on an adventure to find my legs you say yes 
but give me an arm instead 
now i have no legs and three arms and youre missing an arm
 but we wheelbarrow across the city to try and find the man with my legs
 and it turns out the president of Columbia University in the City of New York has them 

we go to his house at dusk in suits of armor to retrieve them but of course 
our suits dont fit because we are limbless 
trapezed into his house but he was expecting our entrance and hes hanging ankle bound 
from the chandelier attached to a mansion of bareboned elitism

 one leg attached to his head the other hanging on the wall
 proclaiming hes ready to fight us 
he only has a fork 
youre missing an arm 
i got confused and brought a city rat instead of a sword
i set the rat loose and say retrieve my leg that is mounted! i ask 
 the president to remove my leg from his face, because i was only speaking in jest 
when i said he could have them 
he responds by saying but consent isnt real because plato was a feminist and
 modern considerations aren’t necessary when Butler stands tall in its exhale

i respond by saying i am the god of all that is real and i am taking my legs
you ask when did you become ordained as a god? 
it happened that time i got hungry and ate the sunrise you will eat the sunset 
because blood isn’t fun when it is palpable 
i attach the legs and youre bleeding burnt orange but i return your arm anyway 
i ask, am i going to dissolve to heaven now i am a god? 

you said that we are now past those perimeters 
so we are complete 
but standing tall unfortunately. 

gods of nothing. 
just being beyond.

​
​​//OLIVIA LUTHER is a junior in Columbia College. She can be reached at oml2107@columbia.edu.
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