By Anna Meister
day after day. Where the alarm is a slow build
I require. Where the snow doesn’t end
afterwards. Where I test all the pens, fold in
berries. Where I only go to one bar & it’s the only bar.
Where I get the whole street
to myself, both the instrument & the umbrella.
Where I label many different items Gospel.
Where I fill the calendar’s tiny boxes. Where I am
known by my face. Where I dream of giant inflatable strawberries
in a city where we’ll be later. Where in a lake
I am a very quiet candle. Where I hold court
in bed with women I love in a place I hate
& toast with bubbly gin to not staying
down. Where I find inventive ways to use leftovers,
slice ginger into soup. Where I never drive again.
Where the last episode was so sad I don’t know
if I can finish. Where I fold. Where I watch an idiot walk out
to the center of an iced–over pond like he won’t fall through
& then he doesn’t. Where I give him a new name. Where I only leave
the house for potato chips. Where I locate
the picture of my parents that matters.
Where there’s an avocado painted on the wall.
Where I forget to be dissatisfied
because my plants are thriving. Where I honor the dead
right. Where I bake bread on a Monday night.
Where I stay on the phone her whole commute
home. Where I am spread out. Where I take a walk
to survey the current state of things. Where I dance in the living
room until all breath is gone with the song that goes
I no longer love the color of your sweater.
Anna Meister is an MFA candidate in Poetry at New York University, where she serves as a Goldwater Writing Fellow. A Pushcart Prize & Best of the Net nominee, her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Prelude, The Adroit Journal, Powder Keg, Twelfth House, & elsewhere. A 2015 Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts Fellow, Anna lives & works in Brooklyn.
Art: “The Door” by John Sanderson
A Colorado Native, Sanderson lives in Lancaster. Always looking for his homeland around his home. Wedding/portrait photographer by trade. Designer by education. Passionate about Maple Syrup. Adores his wife and 3 kids.