66 (china shop)


Ok, you didn't need to break something.

When people come into this china shop,

they tiptoe around, they oo and they aa,

and then when they walk out, they slam the door.

I spend my whole life sweeping up the glass,

rethreading crystals onto chandeliers,

trying to crazy glue the porcelain,

telling myself that it was just an accident,

and I'll crawl around and find all the gears

to reassemble the two grandfather clocks,

which maybe needed cleaning, and then I'll

fix the doorknob, which didn't even lock.

Tomorrow, I can reattach the sign.



published  in The Brooklyn Rail

also embedded at The Believer Logger

also embedded at PEN

included in "Webcam Girls Read Sonnets" in Vice