POEM
Apartment
1
The woman on the mantel,
who doesn't much resemble me,
is holding a chainsaw
away from her body,
with a shocked smile,
while an undiscovered tumor
squats on her kidney.
2
The present
is a sentimental favorite,
with its heady mix
of grandiosity
and abjection,
truncated,
framed.
3
It's as if I'm subletting
a friend's apartment.
Even in the dream,
I'm trying to imagine
which friend.
And I'm trying to get
all my robes together,
robes I really own and
robes I don't
Source: Poetry (June 2008).
This poem originally appeared in the June 2008 issue of Poetry.
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