Crab Orchard Review Vol. 12, No. 2, our

nested glass bubble. Sweet
Something of Mine—before they say
sanctify, let’s skip town, hock
the registry gifts for cash, jettison
the material outline of a life which
reduces everything to crime-scene
chalk dust, to streamlined stories
with deceptively simple arcs: a blender,
a stand mixer, service for twelve with matched
open stock vegetable platter. We are a sevenwalled
restaurant tangled in an Alphabet City
snapshot, broken plate at our feet. I can’t
remember who tossed it, but if you
dig in my coat pocket you’ll find
encrypted desire of lint & matchbooks,
free signs in this lush & burgeoning
world of someone’s love for us aching
to be tested—that floor-model mattress
before we slipped from the store
empty-handed, your body dashing
& suspended
next to mine.
Erika Meitner
Crab Orchard Review ◆ 151