What's Beneath

-

What's Beneath


Too long this linoleum

languor. Aren’t you

tired of pretending tile


curls like the brittle crust

of a chapped lip? You and I both

know if we could get a grip on the flap 


of skin beneath the chin

and clear the snag of nose

our faces would snap off


the scalp like a swimmer’s cap,

then once we mopped up the place 

we could really see eye to eye.


We might find, like the time

we moved the washer

when it was time to move out 


of Liberty St, that beneath

you could press through the floor

with a finger. You said


shit like you meant it; I

loved that. It cost us

the whole of our security 


deposit. Sure, it'll mean

more than just the laminate

but the quarter-round and base-


boards, even the subfloor

down to the joists, but we knew

with this fixer-upper we were


signing away choice.  

And then for every sunk

savings, every swift-swallowed


dream, you hear things

you can really plant

a back foot on, like

people finding original hard-

wood, even heart-of-pine’s

embering glow, unquenched.  


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