Statement of Purpose

any way you slice it i was born for a good time

some of my primary interests include pomp

circumstance

occasion

and carousing

love a kickback and a kiki

very much love a tea

weddings

graduations

meg’s monday night birthday function i stayed at waaaay too late for a monday night

i’m mariah carey on qvc repeatedly describing herself

and everything she loves as “festive”

i’m andré leon talley specifying he wear a caftan

for his cremation

my dearest ellery said he can’t remember a boring day in his life

i’m free will agnostic

but with each conscious choice toward that ethos

the need for sleep

the need to labor

two little devils strapped to my back who synergize

to ruin quality time

just rude

needy

and greedy

depending on who you ask

i’m going to hell and all my girls are too

i’m afterlife agnostic but if some kind of something comes next

what else to call it besides the afters, the very last afters

and if my girls are there with me

i’m good

we’ll know who to haunt and do it well

dressed to the nines in maggot-drenched couture

“The language of academia provides a lot by way of fun titles. The ways that any of us live our lives is, of course, imbued with the political, but I think it’s crucial not to conflate those modes and choices with politics. Politics is collective action in pursuit of common goals. It’s harder to collectivize when your ability to relax—your ability to actually enjoy life—is strategically limited in service of capital by the industrious powers that be.”

—Kyle Carrero Lopez

Permission by Kyle Carrero Lopez. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 1, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets.

Kyle Carrero Lopez is the author of Party Line (Graywolf Press, 2026) and Muscle Memory ([PANK] Books, 2022), winner of the 2020 [PANK] Books Contest. A Cave Canem fellow, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.