Hey, Teebs!

hey bbs just a heads up I finally did the whole squarespace thing and made a “real” website over at tommy-pico.com, so that’s where I’ll be updating everything from now on. Oh and I posted a new poem that’s kind of a mash up of some old work with new work as the connective tissue between the stuff called “I See the Fire that Burns Within You” that I was commissioned to make for a conference on healing indigenous trauma on my rez. You can read the text and hear me read it too! CHECK IT OUUUUUUT:

heyyy butterbeans, I’m hosting a brand spankin new podcast called JUNK kind of as a companion piece to my book and also as a stand alone show! In each ep I interview 3 cultural luminaries, getting the scoop on a piece of their junk. It drops July 1! Subscribe here: 

lmfao nbd but if u take this BuzzFeed quiz and choose Janet Jackson u get Junk!

TONITE TONITE TONITE TONITE TONITE TONITE

Junk (Tin House, 2018) is an epic poetic ode to refuse, thrift stores, and eggplant emojis and is the third book in my “Teebs” trilogy. It’s been named one of NPR’s most anticipated books of 2018 and hailed by Publisher’s Weekly as “build[ing] into an apocalyptic crescendo via Pico’s propulsive fervor, junk piling on junk.”

The book also implores you to value Junk itself, because “Junk has the best stories.” Instead of a typical reading, I asked six cultural and literary luminaries to bring a piece of junk from home and tell its story, old school show-and-tell style:

+ Nichole Perkins + Matt Ortile + Bukem Reitmayer + Chris Campanioni + Natalie Eilbert + Max Steele

RSVP encouraged but not required. Admission will be first come, first serve based on capacity. It is suggested you arrive at, or a few minutes before 8pm.

bbs! So I’ve got a book coming out next week and I’m going on tour. I’ll have a couple other dates in the PNW starting May 8th. Here’s a run down of all the dates and venues!

May 8-Seattle @ Mount Analogue, w/Kim Selling, Anastacia-Renee Tolbert, Aidan Fitzgerald, and Willie Fitzgerald

May 10-Portland OR @ Powell’s, in conversation w/Matthew Dickman

May 13-New York City @ the Ace Hotel, w/Nichole Perkins, Matt Ortile, Bukem Reitmayer, Chris Campanioni, Natalie Eilbert and Max Steele

May 15-Washington DC @ Colony Club, w/Joe Osmundson, Gary Fincke, Jesse Wang, Amy Woolard, and Jonathan McClure

May 16-Baltimore @ the Crown, w/Joe Osmundson, Alain Ginsberg, and Janea Kelly 

May 17-Philadelphia @ Tattooed Mom, w/Jos Osmundson, Kristen Arnett, and Salas Rivera

May 18-Brooklyn @ the Park Slope branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, in conversation w/Joe Osmundson & moderated by Angel Nafis 

May 19-Northampton @ APE Gallery, w/Joe Osmundson, Patrick Bella Gone, Andy Nicole Bowers, and Aba Micah Collins-Sibley  

May 20-Providence RI @ Ada Books, w/Joe Osumundson and Charlotte Abotsi

May 21-Portland ME @ Print Bookstore, w/Joe Osmundson    

again

I will always remember you

on the drive to seattle, platelets in the artery of the 5 shunting into the city’s heart bc usually I take the bust bc of course usually I’m by myself and the bus meanders off the freeway and comes in on the sneak, dropping me in the international district like a side piece and this is the last sentiment abt boys I will ever write bc I’ve already written those poems I mean those books lol Connective tissue wears down over time causing all sorts of problems, including________

I’m hungry and I said it and I’m not taking it back I guess time really has passed even though now it feels like gurgling rainbow sprinkles I remember being a common teenage anorexic in the throws I mean the throes of whittling myself invisible and saying “I’m Hungry” was like saying “Kill Me Slowly With Blunt Force Trauma You Fucking Dog Bitch” and while I’ve gotten better at saying the word and in fact all words and in fact it turns out I have a very loud ass face buried under the mirepoix of self-censorship and extreme doubt and cool ranch doritos I don’t know what it means in the sense that I’m hungry like is that something I shd take care of with food?

Okay. Yes. Got it. But pizza nachos or a salad and like life says do both do it all stupid or none of it and I shame face still embargo fashion magazines and as self actualized or whatever as i can get I still can’t step on a scale without invoking somewhere in my ankle chakra the weights I would wear at weigh ins so my mom would feel okay at the tail end of their marriage and when the suns set on our family And later Rich and Willie and Chase talk about the ProudBoys stalking up to Cap Hill 70 strong twice the size the were last year “not to fight” chase says intones that they’re mostly non violent frat boys just trying to disrupt the community and I feel disrupted and disrupted is the literal outcome terrorism Not like Syria or Pakistan where the journalists lay or Mogadishu bustling city center bombs or ICE at every 

turn targeting churches Sanctuaries and sanctuary cities and ppl targeting Michelle Wolf for calling out liars at the WHCD in the corrupt regime like arent we supposed to be rallying around her? Where to we place the feelings of white women over literal families being torn apart and the the bombs and the bombs and the bombs in other countries