I am blinking like an automated speed meter. I did not make a rookie mistake with my love this morning. I am a summation of my cohort of mother figures even when I don’t like it. I did not cry angry tears to sleep last night. I am wearing sparkly socks for the sheer festivity of it. I am not in the hospital. I will stay out of the hospital this upcoming Pisces season. When I turn on the shower I smell my grandmother’s laundry detergent if I turn my nose just so. I am not devastated by loss. My grief grows flowers like the graveyards of Berlin. I only like songs that are about love. I only like poems that are about love. I only like you when you’re about love.
[I am blinking like an automated speed meter]
L Scully
Feature Date
Series
Selected By
Share This Poem
Print This Poem
“[I am blinking like an automated speed meter]” from SELF-ROMANCING: by L Scully.
Published by Dopamine Books on September 9, 2025.
Copyright © 2025 by L Scully.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
In a tonal mash-up of Jenny Holzer’s Truisms, confessional poetry, and fortune telling, Self-Romancing draws you into the amorous and obsessive inner life of an unnamed romantic. Relatable and snarky, heartfelt and horny, L Scully fortifies irony with vulnerability, bringing readers into a narrative as intimate as slumber parties and ordinary as Trader Joe’s. Bursting with the giddy charm of the everyday, Self-Romancing plays with form, turning a book into a crush, a crank call, a manifesto.
"Part Nathalie Sarraute’s Tropisms, part Joe Brainard’s I Remember, this book pulses with electric sensation and stray-thought beauty."
—Nate Lippens
"The addictive reading of this brilliant poetry collection is a testament to the ears and breath aligned with the music L Scully joins for us at every corner of our imaginations."
—CAConrad
Poetry Daily Depends on You
With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.
