Sometimes, when I’m feeling a little down,
or if my insomniac-fueled tendencies
have gotten the best of me,
I talk to the alien
tucked away in my shoebox.

He rarely leaves the confines
of the cardboard,
only leaving to give a warm hug
or to dab my tears away with
a used tissue.
Sometimes he offers me
stale fortune cookies -
the fortunes are always slightly frayed
at the edges.

The hospice of the alien
and its innards:
cosmic slime
purple pixie dust
three silver coins
braided pocket lint
and his good luck sock
which he cut up to fit his
two-toed foot.

Julia Aloi is a writer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is an editor for BatCat Press, where she also practices a variety of bookbinding techniques. She serves as the managing editor of the award-winning literary magazine Pulp. Her work has been published in Balloons Lit. Journal and will be featured in the upcoming issue of Sheepshead Review.