i am alt lit

84.4 :: ‘i imagine you in your house, cleaning your chest.’ by sarah jean alexander

‘i imagine you in your house, cleaning your chest’ by sarah jean alexander //self-published, 2012

84.4
 
have ‘mild’ ‘reservations’ using adjectives
to describe this
 
‘understated’
 
‘honest’
 
lol, ‘sincere’

 
the opener:

1.

A man who looks like you walks past my window.

I have only been awake for 3 minutes and I don’t

have my glasses on, but I see tall, I see brown hair, I

see needs a haircut, I see broken shoelaces, I see not

looking in my direction.

sarah jean sarah jean
 
seems like a song maybe
 
serif font,
linear construction,
capitalization and full-stops,
‘fine art’ ‘still life’ post-non-meta-ironic cover…
 
the aesthetic of this piece is a bit deceptive
 
in that ‘cleaning your chest’ is ‘truly’ ‘alt lit’
 
more ‘alt lit’ than this blog maybe

like sarah jean sarah jean

means everything she says
 

I am connected to the soles of your feet

I am the sidewalk you are stepping on right now

I am the coffee you will drink tonight

I am the mattress on which your body will rest

I am the pillow stained with drool

I am every text message you send to your mom and

every reply she sends back

sarah jean sarah jean sarah jean alexander

are you ‘the next’ megan boyle [via being a wife and ‘repping’ baltimore]?

are you ‘the saddest, most earnest ‘gchat surrealist’ ‘in the game”

//

seems like someone

named ‘buttercup mcgillicuddy’ is ‘friends’

with sarah jean and
sent me ‘this’:
 

sarah:  ‘i am alt lit’ writes just like you, lol

sarah:  felt like i was reading an extension of your tao lin convos

buttercup:  seems to say bc i feel surprised about the ‘3yrs’ review

sarah:  which, btw, are pretty f***ing great. one of my favorite pieces i have ever read

buttercup:  like… had no idea…

my mom called me to tell me

sarah:  lol

buttercup:  she googled my name and saw

sarah:  mom is in the alt lit fold

sweet

your mom is ‘relevant’

but congrats

buttercup:  thnx

you’re up next, looks like

lol

sarah:  i kno i am sh***ing myself

i don’t want it

i did but now i don’t

oh well

feel afraid of negative feedback but i guess that’s what this game is about

buttercup:  lol ‘game’

strongly feel that somehow

possibly because of her ‘newness’ ‘on the scene’

possibly because of status as a ‘sadcore bro’

possibly because of ‘oppression from the patriarchy’

that sarah jean has been previously ‘overlooked’

going to use ‘more’ adjectives

with adverbs

to describe this piece

‘refreshingly earnest’

‘satisfyingly sweet’

‘gorgeously deft’

sarah jean alexander may be the human

who  eventually ‘legitimizes’ the walter mackeys,

the sian rathores,

and the j.d.a. winslows

of the bleaker, sadder, outer litosphere